A ruling by the New Mexico Public Regulation Fee on November 30, 2022 considerably improves the state’s interconnection guidelines by incorporating nationwide finest practices for the evaluation of renewable and vitality storage tasks.
The principles, which govern how distributed vitality assets (DERs) like photo voltaic and vitality storage can connect with the electrical distribution grid, are the product of a strong stakeholder engagement course of and embrace a lot of suggestions proposed by the Interstate Renewable Power Council (IREC). Many of those practices are primarily based on suggestions developed by IREC and a workforce of professional companions beneath a multi-year undertaking referred to as “BATRIES,” which goals to scale back price and time boundaries to the secure and dependable interconnection of vitality storage with assist from the U.S. Division of Power Photo voltaic Power Applied sciences Workplace.
“New Mexico’s guidelines had not been up to date in over a decade and interconnection was turning into a serious obstacle to deployment of neighborhood photo voltaic, vitality storage, and different tasks within the state,” stated Sky Stanfield, legal professional for IREC. “The brand new guidelines are clear, strong and observe nationwide finest practices in a spread of areas. This resolution will allow using new applied sciences and can facilitate environment friendly and secure interconnection of tasks going ahead.”
One of the vital developments within the new guidelines is that they now acknowledge a category of tasks referred to as non- and limited-export tasks, through which controls are used to restrict whether or not or how a lot electrical energy is shipped from the DER system to the grid. Recognizing and enabling this functionality is a key a part of capturing the advantages of vitality storage specifically. As applied sciences like vitality storage have outpaced DER interconnection guidelines, many export limiting tasks have confronted boundaries to interconnection as a result of the evaluation processes that utilities use are primarily based on inaccurate assumptions about how these programs will function. The brand new guidelines acknowledge export limiting capabilities and set up applicable evaluation processes that safely and reliably evaluation these tasks in accordance with how they function. As a part of this, New Mexico grew to become the primary state within the nation to undertake a display screen to guage the impacts of the “inadvertent export,” that may happen in export managed programs beneath sure circumstances.
The brand new guidelines additionally set up a timeline and pathway for using sensible inverters in New Mexico. Inverters are a key a part of renewable vitality programs, changing direct present into alternating present that may be despatched to the grid. Good inverters are superior inverters that may sense circumstances on the grid and modify a DER system’s operation to assist the steadiness of the grid (amongst different capabilities). The Fee dominated that beginning on March 28, 2023 all new inverters on DER programs will probably be required to be sensible inverters that adjust to the necessities of IEEE 1547-2018, a associated technical commonplace. Using sensible inverters can allow the grid to accommodate considerably greater ranges of DERs with much less want for pricey upgrades, so this forward-looking coverage will place the state to efficiently incorporate extra renewable vitality programs.
“These adjustments are a serious milestone in adopting sensible inverter settings realized within the new IEEE 1547-2018 commonplace and transparently implementing them in New Mexico,” stated IREC Regulatory Program Engineer Midhat Mafazy, who supplied technical steerage on finest practices on this space. “IREC applauds the NM PRC’s efforts to acknowledge and set up minimal necessities for producing amenities assembly IEEE 1547-2018, and to require oversight (by stakeholder engagement and Fee approval) of any remaining IEEE 1547-2018 settings.”
The brand new interconnection guidelines additionally embrace adjustments to the screening processes that utilities use to guage the potential impacts {that a} proposed undertaking might have on the grid when deciding whether or not to approve it for interconnection. Bigger tasks can now qualify for simplified and quick observe evaluation processes, significantly in the event that they make the most of export limiting. Moreover, a standard however imprecise rule of thumb that’s used within the interconnection course of (“15% of peak load”) was changed with a extra exact display screen primarily based on extra related grid circumstances (“100% of minimal load”).
One other notable enchancment from the Fee requires utilities to trace information on the standing of interconnection requests and report on that information twice per 12 months. Throughout the nation, even though interconnection delays are a standard problem for renewable vitality tasks, lack of knowledge and required reporting is a serious barrier to elevated accountability that would enhance the method. This monitoring requirement will permit the Fee to evaluate compliance with established interconnection processes and timelines.
Moreover, within the occasion that the interconnection evaluation course of determines {that a} undertaking can’t interconnect with out pricey upgrades to gear on the grid, undertaking builders will now have a pathway to change their tasks in sure cases to deal with the system constraints recognized. This pathway might allow tasks to interconnect that in any other case would have needed to withdraw and reapply for interconnection evaluation, a course of that may add months or years to the event timeline.
Lastly, the brand new interconnection guidelines additionally open the door to extra equitable distribution of grid improve prices. Traditionally in New Mexico, and most different states, if a proposed undertaking requires upgrades to the grid to soundly interconnect, the developer should pay the complete price of these upgrades, although subsequent tasks will profit from them. The Fee adopted new rule language that enables it “to contemplate, on a case by case foundation, whether or not a specific scenario could also be eligible for cost-sharing (whether or not amongst equally located candidates or in charges).” Though the main points of such price sharing insurance policies will probably be developed in a future ruling, the choice to create a pathway for price sharing is notable and per rising finest practices across the nation.
New Mexico’s revised interconnection guidelines put it on the forefront of utility rules that higher acknowledge the capabilities of contemporary renewable vitality applied sciences and streamline the deployment of DERs in a secure and reasonably priced method. Readers concerned about extra element in regards to the ruling can discover further analysis on IREC’s web site.
Information merchandise from IREC
