The future of energy is definitely renewable, but a major bottleneck is holding things back: interconnection delays. Today, vast amounts of wind, solar, and battery storage capacity are stuck in long interconnection queues, often waiting years for approval (or rejection!). We’re applying outdated standards to cutting-edge technology, and it’s costing us billions of dollars in time and money. A swift transition to a sustainable energy future is at risk if we don’t fix this problem. That’s where “Zero IX” comes in.

What is Zero IX?

Zero IX (or Interconnection Zero) is our proposed approach to completely eliminate renewable energy project interconnection queue delays. Instead of a drawn-out application process, projects that meet pre-defined engineering guidelines and specifications would be instantly “ready-to-connect” at their chosen location. Think of it as a “plug-and-play” system for renewable energy.

How Does it Work?

The core idea is to set clear engineering guidelines for Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). These guidelines would ensure that systems are inherently capable of supporting grid reliability and stability. To robustly achieve this result, we need the following:

1. Engineering Guidelines: We will define specific technical requirements that DERs must support. This includes things like smart inverter capabilities / settings, load flexibility, energy storage and ultimately the requirements for how these collective DER capabilities are securely and cost effectively exposed to the System Operator / Utility to leverage (and don’t worry, we already have this covered!).
2. Independent Engineer Certification: Instead of joining a queue, projects submit commissioning documentation approved by an independent engineer. This documentation confirms that the project meets the established engineering guidelines.
3. Automated Approval: A web based self service portal is used to approve projects.  Upon receiving the necessary documentation, the interconnection is automatically approved. The system achieves this by verifying the authenticity of the submitting engineer and their credentials, leading to what is effectively an instant approval (i.e. Zero IX)
4. Continuous Monitoring: To maintain integrity, there is automated monitoring of randomly selected DER projects to ensure continuous ongoing statistically verified compliance of all connected DER.   This monitoring also serves as a mechanism to verify and confirm the integrity of the work performed by the independent engineers.

Why Zero IX?

• Speed: Eliminates years-long interconnection queues, allowing renewable projects to come online much faster.
• Efficiency: Reduces (likely eliminates) the cost and complexity of interconnection studies.
• Grid Stability: Ensures that connected DERs are no longer a real or perceived problem that needs to be mitigated.  Instead DERs become a valued and useful grid service inherently supporting grid reliability and stability.
• Economic Benefits: Swiss studies one and two  point the way forward (that’s what we call them anyway! More generically, they are DER firm power studies, one is based in Switzerland, the other more recently in mainland USA).  These studies make it obvious that overbuilding solar combined with intelligent locational planning, curtailment and minimal storage creates cost positive societal benefits.  Ultimately this means that DER owners, grid operators and rate payers can and will benefit.  Adjustments to regulation will most likely be required to ensure this result is achieved and to evenly distribute the benefits (we will have more on this in an upcoming blog).

Key Components of Zero IX

The plan for Zero IX includes the following components:

• Defining Commissioning Requirements: Establish the technical standards for DERs based on successful examples like HECO in Hawaii and research from the International Energy Agency (IEA).
• Cloud-Based Verification: Develop a cloud based platform to verify independent engineer identities and automate the approval process (ideally this initial platform would be open source to encourage industry wide adoption).
• Continuous Monitoring System: Implement a system to ensure ongoing compliance and to enforce accountability for the independent engineers (ideally this initial system would also be open source to encourage industry wide adoption).

The Impact

By shifting to a Zero IX approach, we can dramatically accelerate the deployment of renewable energy, making the grid more resilient, reliable, and economically efficient. The analysis process becomes streamlined to verifying documentation and the integrity of independent engineers instead of prolonged studies, enabling instant approval and faster grid integration.

Conclusion

Zero IX has the potential to transform the energy landscape, enabling a faster and smoother transition to a renewable future. Ecosuite is committed to spreading the word on Zero IX and establishing it as a common approach across many jurisdictions.  It’s about removing barriers and unleashing the full potential of distributed energy resources to power our beautiful world. Join us.