Flexible Interconnection Programs from Utilities on the Rise, Saving Time and Money for Microgrid and DER Developers

To help microgrid and other distributed energy resource (DER) providers cope with today’s lengthy interconnection times–sometimes years long–utilities are beginning to offer flexible interconnection pilot programs in which the customers agree to reduce consumption during peak demand periods in exchange for a quicker connection.

These programs can help save customers money because they may avoid paying for expensive upgrades to the utility infrastructure–substations, for example–that utilities often require under traditional interconnection programs. Those customer investments are required when utilities don’t have the infrastructure needed to bring the customer’s total load online.

A recent report from Lawrence Berkeley National Lab found that interconnection queues continue to be long – and those delays are significantly hampering completion rates for renewable energy infrastructure projects across the country.

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison, Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) and National Grid are among the utilities offering these pilot programs.

The customer groups that are taking advantage of these pilots include companies offering fast charging. By providing fast charging more quickly to ever-growing electric fleets, utilities can speed the deployment of electric vehicles (EV) that serve as mobile microgrids.  The EVs’ batteries can help support the grid in times of stress, integrate renewable energy on the grid and help advance the clean energy transition.

Flexible interconnection accelerates electrification efforts

“First and foremost, flexible interconnection accelerates the time to electrification that is beneficial to us and the customer for a host of reasons,” said Brendan Harney, president, Camber, which provides fleet electrification.

“It gets no-emission vehicles onto the road faster and replaces diesel vehicles in the process. It lowers the upfront costs materially so that we're not having to pay for unnecessary or maybe upgrades not necessary at the time.”

Microgrids and storage can play a role in flexible interconnection, providing power when the utility doesn’t have any available power for customers participating in these programs. This allows facilities to stay energized when utilities tell them they need to reduce or eliminate power consumption.

ComEd to add 240 MW of flexible interconnection

ComEd expects that its flexible interconnection program will bring on 50 MW of flexible interconnection customers starting in 2026 and about 50 MW per year to a total of about 240 MW in 2027 at the end of its grid plan, said Jessie Bauer, ComEd’s manager of DER engineering and capacity planning.  Its full program–no longer a pilot–will begin in 2026, he said.

PG&E’s program, FlexConnect, now manages 11 MW of  flexible capacity on the distribution grid, and has an additional 38 MW in the pipeline expected to come online by the end of 2026.  The company expects the program will  provide 100 MW of flexible capacity by 2031, said Alex Collins, manager, DERMS execution and operations at the utility.

This keeps customers happy, interconnecting them months or years faster, Collins said.

Interconnection delays are “a real customer pain point that we've heard from the field and this is one of the first novel solutions we're rolling out to tackle this,” he said.

Customers must pay for hardware and/or software

Customers who take advantage of these programs must invest in some hardware and/or software to facilitate the process. They must own the hardware and software or contract with a company that licenses it.

“You need a small amount of hardware, I think a cabinet the size of a shoebox, or even one or two things that you could bolt onto your existing telecom cabinet at the site,” explained Collins.

The software required must receive signals from PG&E about, for example, the need to reduce consumption. Typically, customers contract with third parties that can receive messages from PG&E and interpret them, then ensure the customer site complies with them, he said.

Under the program, PG&E forecasts for grid conditions a day ahead and can take back extra capacity from a flexible interconnection customer during emergencies. And if a site loses connection with the utility, perhaps during an outage or say, if a car crashes into a pole, the site must be able to automatically scale back consumption.

ComEd’s DERMS system helps add more MW to its program

ComEd’s program uses a distributed energy resource management  system (DERMS)  to provide real-time monitoring of its transformers and other equipment. ComEd also has advanced communication directly to the DER sites, Bauer said.

The real-time monitoring and control allows the company to minimize the margin that's required, so the system can be operated up to its limit, allowing for more MW to go to customers’ sites. It also allows the utility to instantly identify problems and react to them.

In order to approve financing for flexible interconnection projects, banks need more information than they would need for a traditional interconnection, Bauer said. For example, banks ask for a third-party analysis of the utility’s historical data.

“So we've had to look at this very differently where we're not just looking at where we think it's beneficial, but also where it can benefit our customers and where we have enough information to provide them that they can ensure they get financing for those projects,” he said. With this information about specific locations, the utility can predict how often flexible interconnection customers need to reduce their consumption.

Another challenge for utilities rolling out flexible interconnection programs is building trust with customers, Collins said. The company also is gathering early success stories to share with potential customers.

“We've been operating sites now for seven plus months and we now have five live sites. All of that builds trust in customers. Before we might have had a customer saying, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’ Now customers are saying, ‘I heard from another customer that they’re using this, so I want to use it, too,’” he said.

The many benefits of bringing customers online sooner

Not only will flexible interconnection programs lower costs for individual customers and help speed the clean energy transition.

The larger base of customers will see lower costs, said Astrid Atkinson, CEO of Camus Energy, which offers a product that helps utilities and customers with flexible interconnection.

“The utility is still going to spend money on upgrades,” she said. “But by using flexibility, they have the opportunity to be really thoughtful about where that money goes and to preferentially invest it in places that benefit more of their customers and can provide greater net benefits and reliability and affordability improvements.”