Full Title: Disconnected: The Need for New Generator Interconnection Policy
Author(s): Jay Caspary, Michael Goggin, Rob Gramlich, Jesse Schneider
Publisher(s): Americans for a Clean Energy Grid
Publication Date: January 14, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
This report examines America’s disconnected transmission grid and highlights the need for new generator interconnection policy.
America’s system for planning and paying for the nation’s transmission grid is causing a massive backlog and delay in the construction of new power projects. While locally produced electric power is gaining in popularity, most of the lowest cost new power production comes from projects which are located in rural areas and, thus, depend on new electricity lines to deliver power to the urban and suburban areas which use most of the nation’s power. Project developers must apply for interconnection to the transmission network, and until the network capacity is expanded to accommodate the resources, the projects must wait in an “interconnection queue.” At the end of 2019, 734 gigawatts of proposed generation were waiting in interconnection queues nationwide.