Common Misconceptions About Interconnection

When interconnection problems arise, it’s easy to assume the utility is the villain by actively blocking clean energy projects or acting in bad faith. In some instances, that can be true. It turns out the reality is far more complex (and often more frustrating), according to Vaughan Woodruff, who has spent years navigating interconnection challenges across multiple states.

The real culprit turns out to be outdated rules. Many interconnection processes are built on regulations that are 10 to 20 years old, written long before solar and storage deployment reached today’s scale. In this clip, Vaughan breaks down a critical misconception that costs solar professionals time, money, and credibility. Understanding this can change how you approach interconnection issues and the relationships you need to build to solve them.

If you’d like to get a better understanding of how interconnection policy has evolved so you can get a better vantage point on where we should be going, check out Vaughan’s new free course – How We Got Here: A (Riveting!) History of DER Interconnection in the U.S.

Transcript below. 

Vaughan: I’ve talked with companies that aren’t aware that there are clear rules for utilities within the state that are dictated by the utility commission or public service commission in that state. The discussion has first been about helping them acclimate to what the expectations are.

This gets to another misperception: utilities are often seen as a barrier to clean energy. And in some cases, rightfully so – they have actively looked to deter these resources from being connected to their grid. But I will tell you, the challenges from having antiquated or inadequate interconnection rules present the same as a utility that’s just not doing what you expect them to do.

That was a really hard lesson for me to learn early on: Which of these issues are a result of deficiencies in the rules versus deficiencies in either how the utility is interpreting the rules or acting in bad faith?

I don’t think I was unique in this – a lot of times I would assume it was the bad faith piece. But I found over and over again, it’s very rarely bad faith. We’re building our interconnection processes on sometimes 20-year-old regulations. There’s been a lot of things that have obviously changed as it relates to solar and storage in the last 20 years.