Open farm fields make up part of what will become the 5,000-acre Steward Creek Solar farm in Lee County on March 27, 2024. The project has been approved by the Lee County Board but has been in limbo for years.
Both projects have been approved by the Lee County Board. But neither can be built, according to a county official, due to“There isn’t anything we can do to help the state move forward ,” said Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel. “This is all PJM. They have the control.” And nowhere is the problem worse, according to a recent first-of-its-kind report, than in the PJM region, which spans Washington, D.C., and 13 states, in whole or in part, including northern Illinois.PJM’s performance had “few bright spots,” according to the report, which was based on publicly available data, as well as recent interviews with energy developers and engineers working in the field.
PJM, a federally regulated private company that manages part of the high-voltage electric grid, declined a request for a phone interview, instead issuing a written statement saying the interconnection scorecard report “is an assessment of conditions and practices that no longer exist in PJM.” Proposals for big solar projects started arriving here about five years ago, part of a national trend.
PJM effectively slammed on the brakes in 2022, with a decision, approved by regulators, that it would not review newer grid-connection requests — submitted after September 2021 — until early 2026, according to Phase 1 of Hexagon Energy’s Steward Creek solar farm submitted its requests to connect to the grid in 2019 and 2020. The project should get an agreement by mid-2025.
There are more than 1,400 gigawatts of clean energy in grid connection waitlists nationwide, and 1,000 gigawatts of battery storage, or technology that collects energy for later use, according to the most recent Queued Up report. PJM, historically a leader among grid operators, entered the current era in a strong position. But critics say that while some regions have taken bold steps to meet the challenge of clean energy, PJM has moved more cautiously.California’s grid operator — or PJM equivalent — has pursued a blue-state strategy of proactively planning the expansion of the high-voltage grid. That’s helpful, experts say, because a right-sized grid allows new clean energy to connect more easily.
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