It notoriously took Comedian and late-night show host Bill Maher 1,131 days to install his solar system. 😱
According to Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, the median time from connection request to commercial operation for a project increased from <2 years in 2000-2007 to a median of 5 (!!!) years in 2023. ⏰
At an EV conference I went to last year, many fleet operators were installing on-site diesel generators because they were quoted 2+ years to interconnect charging equipment. 😠
Queue reform, at the distribution AND generation level, is absolutely critical to accelerate the clean energy transition. That's why I'm excited to hear that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) of energy and U.S. Department of Transportation will be funding $6.5M to utilities via the Innovative Queue Management Solutions (iQMS) for Clean Energy Interconnection and Energization program. 💡
At Baringa, we have helped our utility clients speed up distributed resource interconnection by co-developing an AI/ML enabled tool utilizing image recognition to intake pictures of installed electrical equipment, automatically identifying installation issues as per relevant electrical codes, and recommending go/no-go on permission to operate. This has saved time, money, emissions, headaches, and improved the utility customer experience. 🌟
Can't wait to see what other great solutions come out from this grant! 🙌
#CleanEnergy #QueueReform #Innovation #RenewableEnergy #AI #ML #EnergyTransition #DOE #iQMS