EquinoxDG principal Vaughan Woodruff recently highlighted the Delaware legislature’s innovative response to interconnection regulation in an article for Factor This.
As Woodruff highlights, Delaware House Bill 269 addresses the need for more frequent updates to the state’s interconnection standards by requiring its sole investor-owned utility, Delmarva Power, to adopt IREC’s Model Interconnection Procedures within 12 month of publication of its newest update. This approach also provides other advantages:
Delaware’s approach shifts this dynamic. Rather than reacting when something breaks, examining isolated portions of the regulations, and litigating technical considerations with parties that often have limited expertise on the basis for effective practices, HB 269 leverages IREC’s Model Interconnection Procedures as the baseline expectation for interconnection regulation in Delaware and requires parties to compel the PSC to approve any amendments. Not only will this reduce regulatory workload by shifting from proceedings where nearly every provision is argued point-for-point to one in which only those provisions that may have unique considerations in Delaware are, it creates more space for regulators to focus on oversight and accountability.
Read the full article here.
