St. Paul, Minnesota — On February 12, National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Board of Directors unanimously adopted a resolution by Minnesota Public Utilities Commissioner Matt Schuerger. The resolution recommends state commissions adopt and implement the newly revised interconnection standard. The resolution also unanimously passed two NARUC committees: the Committee on Electricity and the Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment.

Implementing the distributed energy resource (DER) standard (IEEE 1547-2018) across the country can offer economic, reliability, resilience, and environmental benefits to consumers, communities and utilities. The standard requires a DER to be capable of performing specific grid support measures to ensure that increasing levels of DERs are reliable, and can be visible to grid operators.

The resolution specifically incorporates flexibility for state commissions, while recognizing the best practices identified in IEEE 1547-2018 for convening a stakeholder process, utilizing existing research and experience to make evidence-based decisions, and aligning the implementation of the standard with the availability of certified equipment.

“The resolution is based on the Minnesota Commission’s experience and it was further developed with review and input from industry leaders, resulting in broad support across the electric sector, “ said Commissioner Schuerger. “I’m not only happy to have the resolution pass with such broad support, but also proud of the strong leadership the Commission and Minnesota’s Distributed Generation Workgroup are providing in this important national issue.”

The Commission’s Distributed Generation Workgroup and  interconnection standards update (Commission Docket 16-521) are being looked at nationally as one of the first to adopt and implement IEEE 1547-2018. Minnesota is fortunate to have national experts, utilities, and DER advocates engaged and committed to working through the new issues and opportunities offered by this revised standard.

The Commission’s January 22, 2020 Order adopted our statewide Technical Interconnection and Interoperability Requirement, and this Spring the focus is on utilities’ Technical Specification Manuals. On July 1, 2020, Minnesota’s new technical requirements will go into effect – updating the 2004 statewide technical requirements used for interconnections today. Full implementation of Minnesota’s technical requirements for the IEEE 1547-2018 standard will be aligned with the availability of certified equipment – currently anticipated to be in 2021.

Copy of the final resolutions: https://pubs.naruc.org/pub/4C436369-155D-0A36-314F-8B6C4DE0F7C7

Please contact Will Seuffert, 651-201-2217 or Will.Seuffert@state.mn.us if you have any questions.