BPA Proposes Measures To Improve Its Generator Interconnection Process - 11/07/23
PR 17 23
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023
CONTACT: Nick Quinata, BPA, 360-982-9205
or 503-230-5131
BPA proposes measures to improve its generator interconnection process
First-ready, first-served cluster study aims to clear interconnection request backlog
Portland, Ore. – The Bonneville Power Administration has worked with its customers to propose adoption of regional reforms to address the backlog in large generator interconnection requests that have accumulated over the past five years. The proposed interconnection queue reforms will help BPA more quickly identify projects that are prepared for interconnection and help the region meet its clean energy goals.
The new measures are included in a settlement agreement related to an official process BPA launched in spring 2023 with its customers to adopt regional interconnection queue reforms. On Nov. 7, BPA will begin the formal TC-25 tariff proceedings to adopt the proposed tariff modifications which implement a first-ready, first-served cluster study process.
“These reforms will help BPA and the region identify projects that are best suited and prepared for interconnection,” said Richard Shaheen, senior vice president of Transmission Services. “We thank our customers for doing the hard work that led to the settlement, which is another important building block toward the region’s clean energy future.”
The volume of regional large generator interconnection requests has increased exponentially over the past five years, leading to queue backlogs, uncertainty regarding the cost and timing of interconnecting to the grid and a piecemeal identification of network upgrades. This is in part due to the existing first-come, first-served study process, which studies interconnection requests individually and in the order in which they are received.
The proposed first-ready, first-served cluster study provides efficiencies by studying multiple interconnection requests together and identifying fewer network upgrades when multiple requests are located in a similar area.
The proposed tariff also establishes a Transition Process for pending interconnection requests received in BPA’s queue. Under this Transition Process, customers may apply for interconnection requests to continue to be reviewed in the current serial study process or to be included in a Transition Cluster Study, which applies the benefits of the reforms during the transition to the proposed new tariff.
The TC-25 tariff proceeding will run through January 2024. If the BPA Administrator adopts the proposed changes, the new tariff would be effective June 30, 2024.
Additional information is available on BPA’s TC-25 Tariff Proceeding webpage.
About BPA
The Bonneville Power Administration, headquartered in Portland, Oregon, is a nonprofit federal power marketer in the U.S. Department of Energy that sells wholesale, carbon-free hydropower from 31 federal dams in the Columbia River Basin. It also markets the output of the region’s only nuclear plant. BPA delivers this power to more than 140 Northwest electric utilities, serving millions of consumers and businesses in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, western Montana and parts of California, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. BPA also owns and operates more than 15,000 circuit miles of high-voltage power lines and 261 substations, and provides transmission service to more than 300 customers. In all, BPA provides nearly a third of the power generated in the Northwest. To mitigate the impacts of the federal dams, BPA implements a fish and wildlife program that includes working with its partners to make the federal dams safer for fish passage. It also pursues cost-effective energy savings and operational solutions that help maintain safe, affordable, reliable electric power for the Northwest. www.bpa.gov
###