Navigating the Grid: Location Technology and Utility Compliance - Part 2

Last July, FERC Issued their Order 2023. The term heatmap appears in the order over one hundred times. Heatmap is a classic GIS spatial analysis function. Today, navigating the grid requires a modern GIS that keeps track of where things are located, provides deep insight, and helps stakeholders collaborate.

And it helps energy developers, utilities, and operators solve problems.

No One Likes Waiting in Line

Several years ago, a large utility asked me to share my ideas on improving its customer connection process. It grappled with the lengthy time from when a customer contacted the utility to when it energized the service. The average time was well over eight months. The utility had a reputation for taking forever to connect. So, what did the developers do? You guessed it. They submitted dozens of connection requests, regardless of whether they were real projects or not. Just to hold their place in line. These non-projects clogged up the process—the mere fact of a lengthy line created even longer lines.

I heard stories of people in deprived countries who will see a line and wait in it. They were not sure what the line was for but didn’t want to miss out on whatever awaited them at the end of the line. It’s human nature, I suppose.

This brings me to a recent FERC ruling, FERC 2023. One issue has to do with long lines. Decarbonization has resulted in a flurry of new utility-grade clean energy projects. That’s the good news. The bad news is that the energy created by these proposed projects must go somewhere. These new energy sources must be connected to the grid – the electric transmission system. Every developer must submit an interconnection application to the transmission provider. Today, the line is nearly endless. The queue is 10,000 projects long. If nothing changes, the project at the end of the line won’t get their agreement in place until 2029 – a five-year wait time.

It is the same problem I encountered at the utility that asked me to look at their connection process. Developers submit projects to hold their place in the line. These gums up the process to no end.

FERC Figured It Out

FERC Order 2023 contains 400,000 words and has over 12,000 paragraphs. There is a lot to read in the order. The big idea was that FERC needed both transmission operations, developers, and FERC itself to clean up the process. There were several issues:

1. The Interconnection process for the transmission operators requires an analysis based on ATC or available transfer capability, short circuit, load flow, stability, and voltage studies. Operators must do that analysis in concert with other transmission projects going on. The analysis is complicated, labor-intensive, and time-consuming.

2. The practice is based on first-come, first-served. Thus, transmission operators handle each project one at a time.

3. FERC did not penalize the developers for projects that were not ready to connect. Transmission providers still had to work even on those projects.

4. The transmission operators did not have hard deadlines to meet but instead had to make “reasonable efforts” to approve the interconnection.

5. There was no process in place to deal with new technology and storage systems.

FERC 2023 to the Rescue

The ruling has lots of requirements, but these are the three main provisions:

1. The order allows the clustering of generator requests. Clustering moves the process from a first-come, first-served serial process to a first-ready, first-served cluster study process. Generators near each other can be combined for a single study. This action eliminates the long lines by having the transmission companies look at several connections simultaneously rather than take them one at a time. FERC will also impose penalties for bogus requests – only real ones must apply – which should significantly shorten the queue.

2. The order eliminates the transmission companies’ term “reasonable efforts” to complete the various studies and sets firm requirements. It adds a bit more muscle. So things would not get out of hand, like having 10,000 outstanding interconnection requests.

3. Creates a single connection point for multiple generators, incorporates storage into the interconnection request, and looks at innovative ways to increase transmission capacity.

GIS Becomes a Vital Partner

The order recognizes that GIS is a vital partner in compliance. It requires transmission operators to create GIS heatmaps. They uncover hidden patterns. A heatmap of interconnection requests would illustrate where the projects are densely located and how close that cluster of projects is to a transmission line with available capacity. It could show other relationships, such as project size and status. For example, a heatmap could also illustrate a concentration of projects in areas of high energy use, unemployment, or wind resources. Colors illustrate the relative intensity of the factors. A big red blob highlights high intensity, whereas a light blue one has a lower one. Heatmaps help developers and transmission operators visually see the raw numbers of requests and their locations. It’s the perfect decision-making tool. Heatmaps help to answer the question – where is my biggest problem? Or, to put a more positive spin – where are the biggest opportunities for improvement? Companies of all types use GIS as an insight tool.

Heatmaps show patterns.

So, the heatmap provision in FERC 2023 gives both transmission operators and developers a great decision-making tool to decide, in the case of a developer, where the optimal place to develop its project based on transmission availability and its place in the queue. For transmission operators, it gives them a solid reference for what is coming and where interconnections can occur on the transmission system.

GIS is the Perfect System of Engagement for FERC 2023

What better way to communicate situational awareness than with a map? People have been using maps since the beginning of civilization to help cave dwellers find food, early settlers to farm land, and city planners to build roads. Maps help developers, transmission operators, and FERC engage. GIS for FERC 2023 illustrates where the projects are located, what phase they are in, how much power they can generate, and how much power the nearest transmission line can accommodate their power.

Transmission operators can model their grid using the latest GIS technology, such as ArcGIS Utility Network, to get more insight into the present and future capacity they need. They can spot transmission congestion points and places where they can route new transmission lines. The maps can show this all in a GIS dashboard.

Heatmaps are only one element of GIS spatial analysis. For more information on the value of GIS for energy companies, click here.

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