The US Department of Energy has launched a new collaboration project aimed at making it cheaper and quicker to connect renewables projects to the country’s grid.
The Interconnection Innovation e-Xhange (i2X) programme will bring together grid operators, utilities, renewables developers and other stakeholders with the intent of connecting more clean power generation to the country’s grid.
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Its task will be to solve the various challenges facing the power sector as renewables proliferate, as demonstrated by the soaring amounts of renewables and energy storage sitting in interconnection queues across the country.
The programme, which is funded by US President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will aim to reduce waiting times for such clean resources while simultaneously making connections cheaper to obtain.
It will assess areas including lack of data, human resource challenges and the need for complicated grid impact assessments, providing technical assistance to the programmes partners to develop solutions to those problems.
US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that eliminating gridlock and accelerating renewables deployment is “critical to increasing access to cheaper electricity for American families and businesses”.
“Funding in the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will help DOE and our National Labs build a coalition of problem solvers to tackle interconnection issues, ensure grid reliability and develop equitable solutions for all communities.”
Organisations that form part of i2X will also collaborate with the DOE’s solar and wind offices and the country’s national labs to develop a five-year roadmap that determines appropriate goals and research gaps.
National labs collaborating in the project include Berkeley Lab, PNNL and NREL.
Parties interested in joining the programme can do so here, while a virtual kickoff event is to be held on 7 June 2022 with Secretary Granholm. Registration can be found here.