Abstract
Energy generation, transmission, distribution, storage, and consumption are undergoing a revolution in the United States and the world. Effective and efficient interconnection of technical components, all evolving at rapid but different rates, is critical to the effective and efficient adoption of the renewable energy and storage technologies that are essential for achieving decarbonization objectives. Many measures can be implemented to streamline interconnection efficiencies. The relatively narrow concept of interconnection as applied to the process for connecting assets to power grids can also be useful for looking across the broader spectrum of stakeholders that are needed to advance the industry and ultimately deliver greater connectivity, communication, and collaboration across legislatures, industry, regulators, jurisdictions, academia, and other stakeholders. This kind of broad interconnection, including technical approaches as well as social and cultural dynamics, is critical to clearing the path toward greater adoption of advanced energy technologies.
AI Summary
This chapter examines energy-storage interconnection as both a technical and institutional challenge, arguing that deployment can be slowed as much by outdated policy, regulation, and fragmented procedures as by hardware limitations. It reviews the federal and state interconnection landscape, including FERC rules, IEEE 1547, state standards, and models such as California Rule 21, and explains why legacy rules written primarily for generators do not fit storage well because storage can operate as both load and generation. The chapter identifies recurring barriers involving inconsistent jurisdictional rules, maximum-capacity assumptions, ownership, wholesale-market participation, hybrid systems, and slow standards updates. It recommends storage-specific treatment for exporting, non-exporting, and limited-export systems, greater consistency across jurisdictions, faster standards development, stronger cybersecurity provisions, and closer coordination among utilities, regulators, manufacturers, researchers, and policymakers. Its central conclusion is that successful energy-storage deployment requires coordinated modernization of technical standards, policy, regulation, and stakeholder processes rather than treating interconnection as a purely engineering problem.
Full Paper
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