Promoting Economic Efficiency in Interconnection — Part 1: Coordination Between Interconnection & Grid Planning - CleanTechnica

The article discusses rising interconnection costs for distributed energy resources (DERs), such as community solar, across many U.S. jurisdictions. It highlights inefficiencies caused by utilities’ piecemeal or serial approaches to electricity system upgrades, which increase costs for both interconnection customers and utility ratepayers. To address these challenges, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is hosting a webinar on August 21, 2025, focused on improving coordination between DER interconnection processes and long-term grid planning. The event will explore solutions like aligning DER project interconnections with distribution system planning and enhancing data sharing between interconnection and grid planning processes to identify and deploy system upgrades more efficiently. This webinar is part of a series tied to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) DER Interconnection Roadmap, which aims to simplify, accelerate, and make fairer the interconnection of DERs. The i2X program fosters collaboration among utilities, regulators, project developers,