U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has directed the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to initiate rulemaking procedures and consider an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking presenting potential reforms to ensure the timely and orderly interconnection of large loads to the transmission system.
“In light of the unprecedented current and expected growth of large loads seeking to interconnect to the transmission system, and to provide open access and nondiscriminatory access to the transmission system, it has become necessary to standardize interconnection procedures and agreements for such loads, including those seeking to share a point of interconnection with new or existing generation facilities (hybrid facilities),” the DOE said.
DOE said there are at least four legal justifications for the Commission's jurisdiction over such interconnections:
• First, like generator interconnections, large load interconnections are a "critical component of open access transmission service” that require minimum terms and conditions to ensure non-discriminatory transmission service;
• Second, the interconnection of large loads to the transmission system falls under a practice directly affecting Commission-jurisdictional wholesale electricity rates;
• Third, the proposal does not impinge on States' authority over retail electricity sales by asserting jurisdiction over the interconnection of large loads to the transmission system;
• Fourth, any contrary view of the proposed reforms conflicts with the Federal Power Act’s core purposes.
The ANOPR includes a set of principles that DOE believes should inform the Commission's rulemaking procedures.
Those principles include, among other things, the following:
• To the extent practicable, load and hybrid facilities should be studied together with generating facilities. Such an approach will allow for efficient siting of loads and generating facilities and thereby minimize the need for costly network upgrades, DOE said.
• Like generating facilities, load and hybrid facilities should be subject to standardized study deposits, readiness requirements, and withdrawal penalties.
• The interconnection study of large loads that agree to be curtailable and hybrid facilities that agree to be curtailable and dispatchable should be expedited;
• Load and hybrid facilities should be responsible for 100% of the network upgrades that they are assigned through the interconnection studies.
DOE seeks comments on a number of these and other principles.
