On February 16th, 2012, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, Washington D.C., U.S.) submitted a petition to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to increase the amount of solar generation that can be added to the grid under "fast-track" interconnection.

Currently, projects can utilize fast track interconnection only if they are less than 2 MW in capacity and the total distributed generation in the area is less than 15% of annual peak load. SEIA has requested an exception to the "15% rule" for solar technologies, stating that this rule has become a barrier to solar market access.

"It is essential that regulatory barriers that limit development be removed to allow companies that are developing solar projects to have access to electricity markets," states SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch.

"SEIA is proactively engaging FERC to find a regulatory balance that maintains grid safety and reliability and facilitates fast track interconnection of wholesale distributed generation."

SEIA requests solar to be allowed to meet daytime load

SEIA states that the 15% rule is a very conservative proxy estimate for minimum load, which usually occurs only at night, and has asked that solar be allowed to fill up 100% of minimum daytime load for the period between 10 AM and 2 PM.

The organization notes that projects which cannot use the fast-track must use standard interconnection study and upgrade processes which result in higher costs and project delays.

SEIA also notes that the 15% rule and 2 MW cap were not significant barriers to solar deployment when adopted in 2005, due to the small amount of solar being interconnected. However, the annual grid-tied U.S. solar market has grown 10-fold since that time.

SEIA asks utilities to share peak and minimum load information

SEIA estimates that if approved, the new rule-making would roughly double the amount of wholesale solar distributed generation that could be interconnected on a fast-track basis.

The organization also requested that utilities share peak and minimum load information to solar developers when the amount of existing and proposed distributed generation reaches a 10% threshold, stating that lack of access to this data increases project risks and costs.

Short- and long-term remedies proposed

The organization also offered a number of short- and long-term steps to assure the safe integration of increased amounts of solar on the U.S. electricity grid.

Short-term approaches presented by SEIA include utilizing PV-specific screening criteria to utilize minimum daytime load rather than a percentage of peak load, applying additional screens to evaluate potential voltage or unintentional island problems, and increasing penetration levels in specific areas or zones based on substation location, circuit design and existing distributed generation.

Long-term solutions proposed include developing higher accuracy screening metrics and formulas, upgrading distribution circuit designs for PV hosting, and deploying inverters with advanced functions.

2012-02-21| Courtesy: SEIA | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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