NEWS: Grid queues are moving at an ‘embarrassing’ pace, FERC Commissioner David Rosner said.

The speed problem: It’s time for grid operators to rev up their interconnection processes, Rosner said during last week’s DERVOS talk with energy entrepreneur Jigar Shah. It’s “embarrassing that we can’t do the queues—the paper and engineering piece of that—in a year or less,” Rosner said. 

And while we wait? He’s “bullish” on DERs, and noted that “we need things that can be built faster than we're used to.” To tie it all together, it’s key to carry out “better studies” that examine load, generation, and demand flexibility at once. 

The data problem: To make DERs truly work, the energy industry needs access to hourly data that utilities usually keep under wraps. “I think we should aspire as a country to free the meter data,” Rosner said…and the crowd erupted into applause.

Plus, a take from Jigar Shah: As the midterm results made clear, ratepayers want lower bills ASAP. DERs can help—but of all the politicians elected Tuesday, “not a single one of those people has ever heard of any of you,” Shah said. 

Shah’s advice to the energy community: “Make sure you spend the time educating people about what you do, what your solutions do, how fast they can scale, and how important they are for energy affordability.” 📝