Welcome to Grid Brief! Here’s what we’re looking at today: FERC rolls out a new rule on interconnection, a weeklong snapshot of America’s power markets, and more.

FERC’s New Grid Connection Rule

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a new rule to speed up the interconnection process for the American electric grid.

“Today is a historic day,” FERC acting Chairman Willie Phillips said during a media briefing. “This rule will ensure that our country’s vast generation resources are able to interconnect to the transmission system in a reliable, efficient, transparent and timely manner.”

The new rule, called Order 2023, aims to rework the burdensome interconnection process. Rather than a “first come, first served” approach, a “first ready” approach will be instituted. In other words, rather than taking projects that apply for interconnection first, those that are already prepared with land rights and permits will be prioritized in interconnection queues.

“It will also impose financial and other conditions to secure a place in the interconnect queue and establish penalties of up to $2,500 per day for grid operators if they fail to complete interconnection studies on time,” reports Reuters. “FERC will also allow projects to be studied in clusters instead of one-by-one in hopes of speeding up the process.”

FERC is also implementing a measure to filter out speculative projects with slim chances of success by demanding higher financial commitments from interconnection customers for joining and staying in interconnection queues. The new requirements entail higher study deposits, stricter site control criteria, and commercial readiness deposits from interconnection customers.

Currently, 2 Terawatts of nameplate capacity are bottlenecked in interconnection queues. Transmission operators have 90 days after Order 2023 is released to explain to FERC how they plan on implementing it.

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What Kept the Lights On Last Week?

It can be easy to get wrapped up in the “discourse” of the energy transition, where the discussion about the efficacy of various sources of energy abstracts itself away from the reality on the ground. To stay focused on what’s actually happening on the grid, here’s a look at what kept the lights on in America last week.

Here’s the country as a whole:

As we can see, natural gas is doing the lion’s share of the work nationwide, nuclear still swamps other clean sources of power, and coal serves a vital, if diminished, role. Looking at this image, we can understand why PJM and MISO are worried about their coal assets shuffling off the mortal coil by the end of the decade.

But what does it look like by region? First, here’s a map to use as a guide indicate which chart corresponds with which portion of the grid. I’m going to stick to the major market areas—CAISO, ERCOT, SPP, MISO, PJM, NYISO, ISO-NE—for brevity’s sake.

 ISO New England

ISO-NE reflects the national trend, but with hydro playing a more prominent role in ramping up to meet demand.

New York ISO

Natural gas is the yeoman of the Empire State.

PJM

PJM is the largest power market in the country. Look at the vital role coal plays in serving the 60 million people in its footprint.

Midcontinent Independent System Operator

Natural gas, coal, and nuclear are the headliners here, but we get a taste of solid wind output—though we also see its volatility.

Electric Reliability Council of Texas

A substantial share of renewable energy appears to work “diurnally” in Texas—meaning wind blows just in time meet demand when solar backs off. Though, that trend is underwritten by natural gas satisfying the majority of demand. That way, when it doesn’t work out diurnally, the grid survives.

Southwest Power Pool

Impressive amounts of wind blow through SPP enabled by ramping from natural gas and coal.

California ISO

The Golden State has a similar profile to Texas, but with less impressive wind output. Here we see the two stars of the show: natural gas and solar.

None of this is supposed to be a definitive account of all America grid regions, not a definitive account of the market areas covered. Rather, it’s to provide a contextualizing snapshot of what’s actually happening in the here-and-now.

Conversation Starters

• Sweden ditches a big wind project. “The Swedish government has rejected utility Vattenfall's application to construct a wind farm at Stora Middelgrund on Sweden's west coast, the ministry for climate and enterprise said in a statement on Thursday,” reports Reuters. “Vattenfall had said it planned to build around 50 wind turbines at Stora Middelgrund, each measuring some 290 metres (950 feet) in height, with the aim of producing between 2.5 and 3.0 terrawatt hours (TWh) of power per year.”

• A toxic solar farm fire has been raging in New York. “Convergent Energy is offering words of apology as firefighters continue to battle the blaze at its solar farm in the town of Lyme. 'We appreciate the patience of the people who have been affected by this situation, and we apologize to them for the disruption it is causing. We are also grateful for the efforts of the town and county official emergency services who have worked hard to keep the situation under control,’ reports Channel 7 News. “Meanwhile, local officials say there are no toxic byproducts in the air, and there’s no indication of any groundwater or runoff contamination that would pose health risks. Residents within a 1-mile radius of the scene were told to shelter in place for several hours Thursday afternoon and evening after four lithium battery storage trailers caught fire at the Convergent Energy solar farm on County Route 179.”

• Chevron’s earnings dropped last week. “Chevron reported on Friday lower earnings for the second quarter of 2023 compared to the same period of 2022, joining the other international supermajors in booking reduced profits on the back of much lower oil and natural gas prices this year,” reports Oilprice.com. “As previewed in profit highlights a few days ago, Chevron said on Friday that its adjusted earnings were $5.8 billion, or $3.08 per share, for the second quarter of 2023. This was more than halved compared to the adjusted earnings of $11.4 billion, or $5.82 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2022.

  Earnings and revenues dropped compared to last year due to lower upstream realizations and lower margins on refined product sales, the company said today.”

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