The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) program has launched a draft roadmap to enhance processes for interconnecting clear power sources to the distribution and sub-transmission grids.
The draft doc offers stakeholders with 37 options organized round: growing knowledge entry, transparency and safety for interconnection; bettering interconnection processes and timelines; selling financial effectivity in interconnection; and sustaining a dependable, resilient and safe grid. The doc enhances the beforehand launched Transmission Interconnection Roadmap, which identifies near- to long-term options for addressing challenges in transmission system interconnection.
Interconnection points are a barrier to the deployment of distributed power sources (DERs) that produce and provide electrical energy on a small scale, comparable to distributed photo voltaic photovoltaics (PV), wind, EV charging gear and battery power storage. As requests to interconnect DERs to the grid proceed to rise, present processes can’t sustain, and the growing queue instances can delay the deployment of recent sources and jeopardize governmental renewable power targets.
“Connecting extra distributed power sources will enhance grid reliability and decrease power prices in communities throughout America,” stated Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Power Effectivity and Renewable Power. “Options on this roadmap can assist all states or areas—no matter their present deployment ranges—pace up interconnection and profit from clear power.”