GAME CHANGING INTERCONNECTION REFORM: RESHAPING TRANSMISSION PLANNING AND REALIGNING INCENTIVES

Abstract

To accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, to address environmental injustices and to meet the CO2 emissions goals of United States (U.S.) there is a need for radical interconnection policy reform. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 established modifications to tax policies, subsidies, and additional provisions aimed at advancing renewable energy initiatives by encouraging the retirement of fossil fuel-fired power plants around the U.S. However, the issue of the growing network enhancements related to interconnection requests remains. Therefore, this white paper investigates the historical practices, interconnection queues back log and increases in network upgrades cost; to make the case for why regional transmission planning and delinking network upgrades cost is the game changing interconnection reform needed in the U.S.