According to a survey report released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the total installed capacity of energy projects in the waiting queue for grid connection in the United States increased by 40% year-on-year in 2022. Currently, there are 1350GW of power generation facilities and 680GW of energy storage systems waiting for approval for grid connection.
As the number of grid connected energy projects increases, the waiting time in queues also increases. The report states that projects completed in 2022 require 5 years to obtain grid connection approval, compared to 3 years in 2015 and less than 2 years in 2008.
As the Inflation Reduction Act stimulates the interest of renewable energy developers in developing more renewable energy, it is expected that the waiting time for renewable energy facilities to be connected to the grid will increase. Julia Selker, Executive Director of the WATT Alliance, said, “If we don’t significantly accelerate the pace of renewable energy project integration, we won’t see the results promised by the Inflation Reduction Act.
According to data released by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the total installed capacity of energy projects currently awaiting grid connection exceeds the total installed capacity of all power generation facilities in the United States, and in most regions, it also exceeds the peak load required for power generation, although not all regions can achieve this growth. The two major regional transmission organizations, California’s independent system operator and PJM Interconnect, have reduced their applications for grid connected renewable energy projects last year.
More than 95% of renewable energy facilities are waiting to be connected to the grid, while photovoltaic systems and battery energy storage systems account for 80% of the new renewable energy projects in 2022.
Joe Rand, an energy policy researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, stated that some of the growth in 2022 may be the result of the stimulus from the Inflation Reduction Act, but this is not all because the bill was passed in the first half of 2022. He expects that over time, more renewable energy projects will enter the waiting queue for grid connection, and the bill will continue to incentivize the demand for renewable energy generation.
But the speed at which these projects exit the grid connection queue is different from the speed at which they enter the queue. The average waiting time for grid connection in 2022 is 5 years, which is one year longer than the average 4 years for projects built between 2018 and 2022. The completion rate is still a concern – according to data from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as of the end of 2022, less than a quarter of the projects waiting to be connected to the grid between 2000 and 2017 were completed.
Rand stated that developers and other stakeholders generally believe that the increasing waiting time for grid connection is the main obstacle to installing renewable energy power generation facilities. The good news is that the grid connection queue is the focus of many regulatory actions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has two records, one for transmission planning and the other for program reform. He stated that new grid enhancement technologies can also help more projects enter the grid.
Selker pointed out that the core issue causing delays in grid connection for these projects is the lack of transmission infrastructure in the United States. But even with reforms, building transmission lines will take several years. At the same time, deploying power control equipment and dynamic line reading technologies can help free up grid capacity and enable more renewable energy projects to be put into operation.
According to a case study conducted by Brattle Group for the WATT Alliance, the alliance advocates the use of grid augmentation technology. By 2025, upgrading existing transmission lines with the latest technology can effectively double the grid capacity of Kansas and Oklahoma.
However, Selker believes that the United States lacks sufficient incentives for grid augmentation technologies, making it unlikely that transmission owners will adopt them.
Rand stated that even with new incentives and reforms, the United States cannot quickly clear its waiting queue for grid connection. He said that as these reforms take effect, the number of renewable energy projects that require grid connection may decrease, and renewable energy developers will not believe that applying for multiple potential projects will increase their chances of success.
