The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) has approved proposed grid modernization rules, which include a streamlined process for utility interconnection applications, clearer and more consistent distribution system information available to potential project applicants, and a pre-application and verification process offering interconnection applicants with an early indication of feasibility and costs.
The NJBPU had accepted and released a report outlining short- and long-term recommendations to modernize the state’s electric grid and improve its interconnection rules.
While the approval of the proposed rules represent the implementation of the report’s short-term recommendations, longer-term changes for hosting capacity expansion and deeper grid modernization will be pursued through recommendations developed in expert workgroups organized under an upcoming Grid Modernization Forum facilitated by the NJBPU.
NJBPU staff have opened Docket # QO24030199 for the public to follow the developments of an initial workgroup organized to advance the implementation of a requirement for Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) to file plans that publicly roadmap their intentions to evolve segments of the grid into more adaptive operation and higher hosting capacities.
The proposed rules approved by the Board were published in the New Jersey Register on June 3 and are subject to a 60-day public comment period.
