Why Solar Professionals Can’t Afford to Ignore Interconnection Anymore

The assumption that solar projects submitted to utilities would automatically be approved used to be standard operating procedure in jurisdictions with established interconnection policies. Unfortunately, those days are over in many places. As solar deployment has accelerated, interconnection delays and denials have become one of the most significant risks facing the industry – transforming what was once a routine administrative step into a complex business challenge that can make or break projects, especially when companies treat interconnection as an afterthought.

Vaughan Woodruff has seen this evolution firsthand. From running his own solar company to serving in executive roles focused on interconnection strategy, he’s watched the industry shift from optimistic assumptions to hard-won (and occasionally expensive) lessons about grid capacity constraints. In this clip from a recent conversation, Vaughan shares why interconnection is impossible to ignore and why every solar professional needs to understand its complexities.

Interested in boosting your understanding of interconnection policy? Start with Vaughan’s free “How We Got Here: A (Riveting!) History of DER Interconnection in the U.S” course! 

Transcript below.

Brit: You’ve worn a lot of different hats in the industry. You’ve started companies, you’ve worked for nonprofits doing interconnection strategy, and you’ve been an advocate for many years. What made you realize that interconnection is probably one of the most critical issues for the industry?

Vaughan: I think it happened for me like it happened for lots of folks—when the assumption that projects we were submitting to the utility would be approved started to break down. We started to see projects that weren’t approved and we started to see delays. This was when I was running my own company.

The issues continued to get worse after we passed pretty wide and aggressive solar policy here in the state of Maine in 2019. We saw a huge increase in the deployment of solar, which just exacerbated those issues more.

Later, after my company merged with a larger multi-state company, we saw these issues intensify even further. I sat in an executive role focused on interconnection strategy, and it became clear that this is a business risk. The assumption that a project can be connected to the grid—if companies still have it—is not a durable perspective.

I learned it the hard way in terms of really having to deal with customers who were surprised by this because we were surprised by it, and then having to go into dispute resolution with utilities in order to get customers fair treatment under the rules.

I don’t think anybody actually sees distributed energy resource interconnection as like, “Oh, this looks delicious. This is the thing I want to get involved in.” It just becomes a necessity. This is a pinch point. As we have more and more solar and storage connected to the grid, that means there’s a higher saturation point, and the grid has a finite hosting capacity.

Unless utility companies are making big upgrades or there’s significant load growth on the circuits where these projects are being proposed, there’s just going to be more and more constraints. Understanding all of the details that inform that becomes a necessity.