Getting these rules approved has on its own been a massive bureaucratic effort. FERC took up the process of improving the generator interconnection process in July 2021 and in June 2022 issued specific proposed reforms. The notice of proposed rulemaking announcing those changes, FERC said. Now, it will take a few more weeks or months for the rules to become official and go into effect.
Also, power generators will have to meet certain requirements to keep their place in the queue, including a financial deposit.Transmission providers will have strict deadlines to to respond to power generators waiting in the queue, and will face penalties if they miss those deadlines.The new rule requires transmission providers to allow co-located to submit one interconnection request, and the rule improves the process for this kind of application configuration.
For the United States to switch from generating electricity primarily from fossil fuels, like oil and gas, to renewable sources, like wind and solar, the system of wires that carry electricity from where it is generated to where it is used needs to be expanded.