At its June 2 meeting, the Board of Directors for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas voted to approve a “Batch Zero Process for Large Load Interconnections.”
“Batch Zero is necessary as ERCOT intends to transition the Large Load interconnection process from an individual study-based approach to a batch study-based approach that allocates available transmission capacity for studied and committed Large Loads,” ERCOT’s media relations department told Public Power Current.
Under the current Large Load Interconnection Study (LLIS) process, Transmission Service Providers (TSPs) conduct individual interconnection studies for each Large Load before submitting them to ERCOT for review and approval.
“Although the LLIS process represents an improvement over historical interconnection processes, it has proved inadequate in managing an unprecedented volume of Large Load interconnection requests,” documents posted on ERCOT’s website noted. “This rapid increase has introduced structural challenges, such as the need for coordination across TSPs, repeated restudies, and a growing backlog of requests. These issues have led to prolonged interconnection timelines and heightened uncertainty for Interconnecting Large Load Entities (ILLEs), TSPs, and ERCOT.”
The next step is Texas PUC consideration at its June 18 Open Meeting.
