The debut of New York State’s ambitious regulatory initiative, Reforming the Energy Vision (REV), has generated quite a bit of interest. REV is designed to transform the energy sector in the state by integrating high volumes of distributed energy resources (DERs) into the electrical-power system, among other goals.


One critical element of the REV relates to standardized interconnection requirements (SIR), which, so far, have made few headlines, according to Sky Stanfield, special senior counsel for Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger, attorneys for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).


“Nonetheless, SIR represents an initial and important step to comply with recent REV orders that explicitly call for the streamlining of New York’s current interconnection-approval processes to assist with the integration of DERs into system planning and operation,” she said.


Interconnection is critical to New York’s REV goals and the state’s clean-energy future. The state’s solar-power market is on the brink of massive growth. The NY-Sun initiative received $1 billion in funding to support the installation of nearly 3 gigawatts of new solar capacity over the coming years. In addition, the state wants to integrate a wide range of DERs, including energy storage and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies, and nearly all of these resources will require interconnection to the electricity grid.


“With such considerable growth on the horizon, the New York [Public Service Commission] has the critical task of reforming and redefining the SIR to both better manage the higher volume of applications and help ensure that systems are sited in locations that help achieve REV its goals, while keeping project costs down and maintaining grid safety and reliability,” Stanfield said.


New York has made some initial progress in its efforts to update the SIR. The commission increased the size of the systems covered under the SIR from 2 megawatts (MW) to 5 MW, thus ensuring more midsize distributed-energy systems will have access to a defined interconnection process.


While these changes are notable and an important first step on the path to bringing New York’s standards in alignment with other leading clean-energy states and national best practices, Stanfield believes that considerably more work needs to be done to establish interconnection standards that support the achievement of REV’s goals.


Interconnection hurdles have been identified as one of the key barriers for energy-storage systems in the United States, and energy storage is a technology that is likely to be an indispensable tool in the achievement of the REV goals.


“In addition, following Hurricane Sandy, numerous efforts have emerged that seek to tackle the enhanced adoption of strategic solar and storage systems on the grid for emergency and resiliency functions in the event of future devastating events,” Stanfield said.