Via PV Mag: " Experts consider speedy utility-scale interconnection in Texas going nationwide: Some experts shared data to back up their praise for the “connect and manage” approach used by Texas grid operator ERCOT, while others speaking on an industry panel explained their reservations.
National goals for utility-scale interconnection for the rest of the country are already being met in the ERCOT grid region in Texas, which uses a “connect and manage” approach, said Mario Hayden, director, transmission at Enel North America, at the Transmission and Interconnection Summit held outside Washington, DC.
It takes just a year, Hayden said, for a solar or storage developer that has filed an interconnection request with ERCOT to progress through the full interconnection study process and reach an interconnection agreement.
Noting a key downside of the “connect and manage” approach, namely the risk of curtailment if transmission capacity is inadequate, Mike Tabrizi, founder and president of Zero Emission Grid, said that although a project developer in the ERCOT region can interconnect to transmission at their own risk, and not be responsible for transmission costs upfront, once the project becomes operational, “then you are fully exposed what’s going to happen with transmission.”
ERCOT says it takes three to six years to energize transmission lines in Texas, said panel moderator Tom Kleckner in his introductory statement. Kleckner, the ERCOT/SPP correspondent for RTO Insider, related that ERCOT says energizing transmission elsewhere in the U.S. takes seven to 13 years. As a single-state entity, ERCOT is not subject to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules, Kleckner said, “so it saves some four years in federal compliance and two years in signing and construction.”
Regan Fink, manager, transmission & interconnection policy for Pine Gate Renewables, described two issues related to managing the need for more transmission, which she called the “manage” aspect of “connect and manage.” First, ERCOT lacks proactive transmission planning, she said, adding that while “it’s really hard” to do, “some of it needs to be done.”
Second, she said that as a generator, “there’s no formal process to sponsor your own upgrades. If you’re facing a lot of curtailment and congestion, but it’s not enough” for ERCOT as a system to decide whether to build upgrades, “then we might be stuck with that. While we’ve been told by ERCOT that we can coordinate with the transmission service providers” in the grid region about sponsoring upgrades, “we would like to see a more formal process.”
Pranay Reminisetty, team lead for resource integration at the consultancy DNV, said that because of ERCOT’s “big backlog in transmission,” interconnecting a project to ERCOT’s grid without knowing how much production will be curtailed presents a financial risk… " #EnergyStrorage #BatteryStorage #Energy
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