The U.S. Department of Energy has released a “Distributed Energy Resource Interconnection Roadmap,” developed through a stakeholder process, that presents 39 solutions to improve DER interconnection through 2030.
The solutions are intended to address “challenges impeding the fast, simple, and fair interconnection” of distributed energy resources, namely: timeline and process delays, high grid upgrade costs, lack of grid data transparency, and incomplete or outdated technical standards.
For each solution, the roadmap lists the actors that would need to be involved, such as regulators, utilities, or other stakeholders, and the actions they would need to take. Some solutions are recommended for areas with a low adoption rate of DERs, below 5% of peak load, while others are for areas with a moderate adoption rate (5-15%) or a high rate (above 15%).
One of the few solutions recommended in the near term regardless of DER deployment rate is accelerated adoption of the IEEE 1547-2018 smart inverter standard, with utilities having the role of deciding which smart inverter settings should be used. A former solar industry executive has made the case, based on Hawaii’s experience, that using default settings for smart inverters can greatly increase hosting capacity for distributed solar and storage.
DOE expects to offer up to $8 million to support local, state or regional collaborative teams to “prioritize and tailor solutions” in the roadmap.
DOE’s expected offer would follow an offer from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, lead developer of a toolkit to make it faster and less costly to interconnect distributed storage, to help states use the toolkit to update their interconnection rules.
The DOE roadmap says that interconnection “bottlenecks” result from misalignment between processes designed for a small number of interconnection requests and rapid growth in the number of DERs seeking interconnection. Proposed solutions to eliminate the bottlenecks include self-service options for smaller projects, process automation, and possibly penalties for utility delays in completing interconnection studies.
Another solution set aims to fix the problem of grid upgrade costs. Enabling DER owners to choose flexible interconnection, which requires them to accept occasional curtailed generation, could “defer grid upgrades and avoid delays,” the roadmap says. The “cost-causer-pays” model could be replaced with an approach to “equitably distribute” upgrade costs among those that will benefit from the upgraded feeder circuit.
Two other solution sets focus on data access issues including hosting capacity maps, and grid reliability.
Saying that “equity is the throughline of this roadmap,” DOE said that “historically underinvested areas of the grid have little headroom and may require substantial upgrades before being able to interconnect DERs.” Several solutions seek to address inequities, referencing state-level experiences and examples of equity-focused DER interconnection policies and processes.
Beyond distributed solar and storage, DERs considered in the roadmap include electric vehicle chargers and distributed wind projects.
The solutions are intended to achieve certain targets by 2030. Under one target, for DER systems smaller than 50 kW that do not trigger system upgrades, half of the projects would obtain an interconnection agreement within one day of submitting an interconnection request, thanks to process automation.
DOE developed the roadmap through its Interconnection Innovation e-Exchange (i2X) process, starting with online meetings of stakeholders in 2023. DOE invited comments on a draft roadmap last September, and those comments informed the final roadmap.
The full set of actors identified as having a role in improving DER interconnection includes regulators, utilities, equipment manufacturers, researchers, software developers, trade and utility associations, educators, and standards development organizations.
DOE will provide an overview of the roadmap in a webinar on January 30. The department has also issued a transmission interconnection roadmap.
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