(A)(1) The commission shall promulgate and periodically review standards for interconnection and parallel operation of generating facilities to an electrical utility's distribution and transmission system, where such interconnection is under the jurisdiction of the commission pursuant to Title 16, Chapter 12, Subchapter II of the United States Code, as amended, regulations and orders of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and the laws of South Carolina. Each electrical utility shall implement such standards in a fair, nondiscriminatory manner.
(2) The commission shall, within six months of the effective date of the amendments to this section, establish proceedings for the purpose of considering revisions to the standards promulgated pursuant to this section. In developing such revisions, the commission may consider any issue, which, in the exercise of its discretion, the commission deems relevant to improving the fairness and effectiveness of the procedures.
(3) In implementing item (1), the commission shall ensure such standards provide for efficient and timely processing of interconnection requests and take into account the impact of generator interconnection on electrical utility system assets, service reliability, and power quality. Such standards shall address the impact of the addition of energy storage and the interconnection processes for amending existing interconnection requests to include energy storage. The commission shall enact standards that are fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory with respect to interconnection applicants, other utility customers, and electrical utilities, and the standards shall serve the public interest in terms of overall cost and system reliability.
(B) No generating facility shall connect or operate in parallel phase and synchronization with any electrical utility without written approval by the electrical utility that all of the commission's requirements have been met. For a generating facility that violates this provision, an electrical utility immediately may and without notice disconnect the generating facility's electric service.
(C) In the event of a dispute between an interconnection customer and the electrical utility on an issue relating to interconnection service, the parties first shall attempt to resolve the claim or dispute using any dispute resolution procedures provided for pursuant to the applicable interconnection standards promulgated by the commission. If the parties are unable to resolve such claim or dispute using those procedures, then either party may petition the commission for resolution of the dispute including, but not limited to, a determination of the appropriate terms and conditions for interconnection. The commission shall resolve such disputes within six months from the filing of the petition in accordance with the terms of applicable state and federal law.
(D) Each electrical utility shall comply with the South Carolina generator interconnection procedures and all commission-approved agreements regarding interconnection practices and reporting requirements. The commission shall establish reasonable guidelines to ensure reasonable interconnection timelines, including time requirements to deliver a final system impact study to all interconnection customers that execute a system impact study agreement prior to three months after the effective date of this act. The commission shall consider implementation of additional performance incentives and enforcement mechanisms for electrical utilities to ensure compliance with this requirement.
(E) The commission shall, as part of implementing subsection (A)(1), consider whether a comprehensive independent review of interconnection should be performed and consider whether to require each electrical utility to:
(1) conduct a study to determine the scope and cost of necessary transmission upgrades to support development of renewable energy resources in a manner that does not impact reliability;
(2) evaluate the cost of developing and maintaining hosting capacity maps to allow power producers to identify areas of the distribution grid that are more amenable to building and interconnecting their generation facilities and to avoid areas that are already saturated with distributed generation; and
(3) file a list of interconnected facilities with the commission each quarter, to include interconnections that are under the jurisdiction of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
HISTORY: 2014 Act No. 236 (S.1189), Section 6, eff June 2, 2014; 2019 Act No. 62 (H.3659), Section 10, eff May 16, 2019.
Editor's Note
2014 Act No. 236, Section 9, provides as follows:
"SECTION 9. If the application of the provisions of this act to any wholesale electrical contract existing on the date of its adoption is determined to impair unlawfully any term of such contract or to add material costs to either party, then that contract will be exempt from the terms of this act to the extent necessary to cure such impairment or to avoid the imposition of additional material costs."
Effect of Amendment
2019 Act No. 62, Section 10, rewrote the section, requiring the Public Service Commission to periodically review the standards for interconnection and parallel operation of generating facilities to an electrical utility's distribution and transmission system.