Hello there, fellow solar enthusiasts! I’ve stumbled upon some fascinating developments in the realm of our favorite topic: solar. Today we’ll delve into the potential for solar array for home and battery storage interconnections in the vast Mid-Atlantic grid operator – PJM. For those who might be new to this, PJM is the nation’s largest grid operator and it’s currently on the verge of a significant shortfall in capacity. However, there exists a solution within our reach.
According to ACORE, a renewables trade group, there is serious potential for growth and capacity addition if we harness the power of certain battery storage projects. In simpler terms, there is unused power that could be put to good use to prevent the looming deficiency. Back in 2018, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) introduced a measure to enable a more expedited study process, one that could occur outside the conventional interconnection queue. This mechanism, titled the Surplus Interconnection Service (SIS), was created to offer a lifeline to new generators.
The SIS process is quite beneficial. It essentially allows these new generators to utilize the idle interconnection capacity of existing generators, given that they don’t cause an uprising in the transmission system upgrades. In fact, regional grid operators MISO and SPP have already implemented successful and FERC-endorsed approaches to SIS. However, it seems like PJM has not been able to keep pace and falls behind with their SIS study processes.
This situation brings me to the joyous aspect of solar panels for your home and larger solar projects. By adopting a more efficient interconnection process, we could dramatically increase the accredited capacity readily available. Notably, expedited interconnection of utility-scale batteries could potentially increase the accredited capacity available to PJM by close to 8 GW. Now, just to give you some perspective, currently, PJM only has a battery capacity of about 400 MW. This means we have a treasure trove of untapped capacity waiting to be explored.
The report points towards a menacing resource adequacy shortfall of approximately 4 GW by 2029. To combat these challenges, the solution is clear: we must turn our attention to high-capacity resources like batteries and harness renewable energy from solar panels for your home and larger-scale solar projects.
Concluding on a powerful note, if the resources added via an upgraded and efficient SIS process were entirely batteries, 13.7 GW of batteries would have an accredited value of 7.8 GW. This, my friends, is the substantial potential of SIS for the modern solar age that lies ahead of us.
Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more solar company updates and remember to consider the vast untapped potential of solar panels for your home, or even for larger solar projects. Remember, every step towards renewable energy is a step towards a brighter and more sustainable future. Until next time, let ‘s continue to shine with solar.
Original Articlehttps://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/09/30/how-to-quickly-add-gigawatts-of-batteries-to-the-pjm-grid/
