Full Title: Just & Reasonable? Transmission Upgrades Charged to Interconnecting Generators Are Delivering System-Wide Benefits
Author(s): Vish Sankaran, Himali Parmar, Ken Collison
Publisher(s): American Council of Renewable Energy (ACORE), ICF
Publication Date: September 9, 2021
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
The American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), with support from the Macro Grid Initiative and in collaboration with American Clean Power Association, engaged ICF Resources, LLC (ICF) to evaluate the regional economic benefits of transmission network upgrades necessitated by generation interconnection requests in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP) wholesale power markets. Both markets have seen a significant uptick in renewable generation interconnection requests over the past few years. Currently, over 92% of the 79 gigawatts (GW) of active requests in the MISO generation interconnection queue are solar, wind, and hybrid resources. In SPP, solar, wind, and hybrid resources make up 95% of the 103 GW active queue requests. Renewable generation is expected to grow even more in the coming years as favorable economics and clean energy goals continue to drive demand.