New Jersey updating solar, storage interconnection rules
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has created new guidelines for the streamlining of solar and energy storage interconnection into the state electrical grid.
The ruling marks “the most substantive updates in more than a decade to New Jersey’s interconnection rules,” according to officials from the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC). In addition to streamlining renewable energy interconnection for the state, the decision increases customer ability to reduce energy cost through leveraging tax credits.
The new guidelines come at a perfect time, says David Golembeski, senior program manager at IREC, as the Garden State grapples with rising utility bills.
“With its new, modernized interconnection rules, New Jersey now ranks in the top ten in the nation on DER interconnection policy, according to IREC’s Freeing the Grid scorecard criteria,” Golembeski says. “These rules provide NJ residents, businesses, and solar developers with a faster and easier pathway to install distributed clean energy projects.
“These improvements come at a pivotal moment as federal tax credits are phasing out, since interconnection delays can threaten customers’ ability to meet tax credit eligibility deadlines.”
Data and analytics firm Wood Mackenzie has ranked New Jersey seventh in the U.S. for residential, commercial, and community solar capacity to be built by 2030, IREC adds. In 2018, former Governor Phil Murphy laid out plans for the state to operate on 100% renewable energy by 2050.
Significant interconnection rule changes
Along with streamlining utility review processes and adding new criteria for renewable energy projects in New Jersey, the new ruling introduces language to “clarifies requirements for evaluating the impact of battery energy storage systems on the grid.” The state has also adopted provisions to allow for flexible energy interconnection to avoid grid upgrades which cost both money and time.
“Even though it required a bit more work, it is important that the BPU took the time to ensure its revisions captured the latest interconnection innovations,” says Sky Stanfield, a partner at San Francisco-based law firm Shute, Mihaly, and Weinberger. “This extra effort will meaningfully improve the efficiency and costs of the interconnection process, particularly for energy storage projects.”
Stanfield also served as lead regulatory counsel for IREC throughout this process, the council adds.
The new changes also reflect the tight tax credit deadlines approaching for New Jerseyan utility customers. Larger projects for state businesses and community solar subscribers must meet either start of construction requirements by July 4 of this year, or construction completion requirements by Dec. 31, 2027.
The new rules set out by the BPU are set to “significantly improve” New Jersey’s energy interconnection processes. Still, IREC representatives have urged the board to continue to prioritize areas of improvement for the state’s utility codes.
“IREC encourages the BPU to also consider updating the interconnection rules on a more frequent basis,” Stanfield says. “Clean energy technologies are evolving much faster than the regulatory process is moving in New Jersey. States that are not able to adapt their processes accordingly will lose out on the innovations and cost savings that they can enable.”
