BOSTON, Sept. 19, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Elevate Renewables (“Elevate”, the “Company”), a prominent national renewable energy development firm specializing in the strategic deployment of battery energy storage system (“BESS”) resources co-located at existing large generation facilities, expressed its endorsement of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (“FERC”) action to revise generator interconnection procedures.
On July 27, 2023, the FERC took a historic step towards modernizing the nation’s transmission grid by mandating that all public utilities adopt revised pro forma generator interconnection procedures and agreements. This move prevents undue discrimination by ensuring that interconnection customers can reliably, efficiently, transparently, and promptly connect to the transmission system. FERC Chairman Willie Phillips emphasized the need for these reforms by noting that at the end of 2022, more than 2,000 gigawatts of generation and storage were waiting in interconnection queues throughout the country – that is as much electricity generation capacity as all the power plants now operating around the country. Projects now face an average wait of up to five years to connect to the grid.
“As a leading battery energy storage system developer and power generator, Elevate needs more timely and efficient interconnection processes…the final ruling is meaningful to the cost, efficiency, delivery, and reliability of power delivered to the communities that Elevate serves,” stated Eric Cherniss, Elevate Renewable Energy’s founder and Head of Development.
Opportunities for Additional Reforms
Tonja Wicks, Elevate Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, echoed Cherniss’ comments and added, “This is a landmark order with reforms that provide clarity and accountability in the interconnection process, however, there are additional reforms proposed in the record that could also be adopted to facilitate our mission of prioritizing clean energy investments in environmental justice communities by expeditiously replacing retiring thermal generating plants with carbon-free battery energy storage resources.”
Elevate’s Support for FERC Revisiting Adoption of Generator Replacement in the Final Rule
While Elevate commends the Commission’s adoption of many critical reforms, it still believes that generation replacement is a critical reform that can complement ongoing interconnection reform efforts by regional transmission organizations (“RTO”) aimed at mitigating interconnection queue backlogs. Generation replacement processes can also help maintain resource adequacy and reliability by addressing the timing misalignment due to existing thermal generation retirements outpacing new entry of generation resources.
Wicks explained, “under a generation replacement process, an evaluation of a replacement resource can be conducted on an expedited basis, separately from the interconnection process applicable to new interconnection requests, with studies that are focused on verifying that the replacement resource can be accommodated using the existing interconnection rights. An efficient and effective generation replacement process has been a viable solution that has assisted MISO and SPP in alleviating pressures on its interconnection queues and could do the same for other RTO markets.”
Elevate, while not filing an individual request, supports AEP’s August 26th request for the Commission to revisit its determination that requests for adopting a generation replacement process in the Generator Interconnection Reform Final Rule are outside the scope of this generic rulemaking proceeding.
Elevate Supports Many Reforms Adopted in the Order 2023 Final Rule
Although not an exhaustive list, the Final Rule did adopt many reforms Elevate supports:
- Implementing a first-ready, first-served cluster study process to replace first come, first serve.
- Directing all utilities to use realistic study assumptions for battery energy storage in all study processes.
- Clarifying that surplus interconnection service is meant for renewable, which battery energy storage would be eligible.
- Focusing on speeding up interconnection queue processing.
- Encouraging the incorporation of technological advancements into the interconnection process.
- Establishing an effective date and a transition process.
See FERC Commission July 2023 Open Meeting Video HERE.
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For more information about Elevate Renewables and their groundbreaking battery energy storage system initiatives, please visit www.elevaterenewableenergy.com
ABOUT ELEVATE RENEWABLES
Elevate Renewables, a national renewable energy development company, specializes in strategically deploying battery energy storage system (BESS) resources co-located at existing large generation facilities owned by private equity funds managed by ArcLight Capital Partners. Elevate Renewables is developing co-located battery storage projects at ArcLight’s 25 GW power infrastructure portfolio. Additionally, Elevate has a brownfield development pipeline of approximately 5GW at over twenty-five project locations.
Elevate Renewables actively participants in energy markets throughout the US, responding to the need for flexible, dispatchable renewable energy. Utility-scale battery storage uniquely fulfills this need where intermittent renewable energy sources fall short.
Company Contact:
Market & Media Communications
Elevate Renewables
200 Clarendon Street, FL 55
Boston, MA 02116
Email: jjanson@elevaterenewableenergy.com
Direct: (585) 232-5440
