Full Title: Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap: Transforming Interconnection by 2035 Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2x)
Author(s): U.S. Department of Energy
Publisher(s): U.S. Department of Energy
Publication Date: January 16, 2025
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Interconnection Roadmap (PDF) identifies solutions to address challenges in the interconnection of clean energy resources to the distribution and sub-transmission grids. The roadmap was produced by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X)—led by the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Wind Energy Technologies Office (WETO)—and published in January 2025. It provides the diverse group of interconnection stakeholders with strategies to improve interconnection processes to meet the growing demand for distributed energy resources.
The U.S. electricity system is changing rapidly. An important driver of this change is the growing deployment of distributed energy resources (DERs). DERs produce and supply electricity on a small scale and are distributed over a wide area. They primarily provide electricity to local consumers in homes and businesses. They include a diverse set of technologies, such as distributed rooftop solar systems, community solar systems, distributed wind systems, electric vehicle (EV) charging equipment, and battery energy storage.
DERs can contribute significantly to reaching clean energy deployment goals, lowering consumer energy bills, and enabling consumer choice, while maintaining the reliability, resilience, and security of the distribution grid. Interconnection processes need to evolve to handle the rapidly growing volume of DER interconnection requests and approaches need to be tailored to local market conditions and availability of distributed energy resources.
The roadmap is organized around four goals, each critical to the overall mission of i2X to enable a simpler, faster, and fairer interconnection of clean energy resources while enhancing the reliability, resiliency, and security of our electric grid. Developed through extensive stakeholder engagement, the roadmap outlines specific actions that each stakeholder group can take to improve interconnection. The solutions are categorized by time scale and deployment level to help stakeholders identify those that best meet the needs and priorities of their states or regions.