Miles Farmer

Federal appeals court shakes up transmission line siting. 3rd Circuit holds PA PUC's permit denial based on lack of need is preempted by PJM's regional planning process.

Opinion is on PACER but not yet posted by 3rd Circuit on its site

I think we're at the tip of the iceberg for permissionless DERs. Imagine a 1200 W plug in solar, with a few kWh of storage on the same circuit acting as a UPS for your fridge or room AC. Could get interesting.

The cryptocurrency sector has responded enthusiastically to our study. The constructive engagement is appreciated, and at the same time, it's important to clarify a few key points made in this latest media coverage. 🧵 🔌💡

The ability to quickly build new resources, even those with "lower" capacity accreditation, will support power system reliability in the near term better than overwrought deliverability studies that try to account for each resource's contribution and slow everything to a crawl

Trump officials allow massive New York offshore wind project to restart The administration reversed course and will allow the Empire Wind project to proceed after lobbying by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Norwegian energy firm Equinor.

Best news I’ve read in a while. The stop work order on Empire Wind has been lifted! 🔌💡#offshorewind www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

I've read through the text from House Energy and Commerce and now Ways and Means. I'm here to tell you this is as bad as it gets for clean energy. We are working to analyze the impact of the actual bill language, but it will be pretty close to our assessment of full repeal we did about a month ago.

FERC Issues Order on Compliance and Tariff Revisions in Docket Nos. ER24-2009 & ER24-2007

🌙 Now Posted: @ferc.gov Issues Order on Compliance & Tariff Revisions in @iso-ne.com.
This stems from #FERC Order 2023.

ferc.gov/news-events/...
🔌💡 #EnergySky

Today I testified to the US House Energy & Commerce Energy Subcommittee for its hearing on "Scaling for Growth," alongside PJM, Southern Company & the Electric Coops - a few things that stood out to me 🧵(1/6) 🔌💡

After groundbreaking bills on jobs and solar, Illinois tackles the… State lawmakers are pushing for more grid-enhancing tech, gigawatts of new energy storage, and the creation of a virtual-power-plant program.

Illinois lawmakers are pushing for more grid-enhancing tech, gigawatts of new energy storage, and the creation of a virtual-power-plant program.

Reporting by Kari Lydersen:

Connecting infrastructure to the grid has been a passion since I worked on FERC's original Order 2003. Surplus interconnection is fast and provides states a tool to accelerate policy achievement even in the face of long queues. Great to work with ‪@mfarmer.bsky.social & the GridLab team!

Surplus interconnection + large load flexibility are two promising near-term ways to mitigate gas overbuild, writes UPenn Kleinman Center's @johnhquigley.bsky.social 🔌💡 kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/commentary/b...

The richest/saddest man in the world is emailing air traffic controllers that don't work for him, on Saturday night, to demand they say how many planes they landed last week, or else they get fired? Do I have that right? Loser stuff

Elon Musk’s first month of destroying America will cost us decades There’s no considered plan, just careless mass destruction.

The breadth of destruction in one short month is staggering: www.theverge.com/elon-musk/61...

Trump to shut down all 8,000 EV charging ports at federal govt buildings The Trump administration is shutting down all federal government buildings' EV chargers and expected to sell off the GSA's newly bought EVs.

Shutting down already installed infrastructure isn't "efficiency," it's sabotage

electrek.co/2025/02/21/t...

'We're Pissed!': Angry Constituents Confront DOGE-Backing GOP Rep At Chaotic Town Hall Rich McCormick was met with boos and jeers as "hundreds of critics" reportedly let him have it at the Georgia town hall event.

Organizing in districts hit hard by DOGE slash and burn tactics (and Republican Congress’ failure to defend their constitutional power over spending) seems like a smart approach: www.huffpost.com/entry/georgi...

Fair. VRE doesn’t help much in ‘very low VRE’ hours. But remember, you can also use surplus interconnection to connect storage! Use cases include storage at low capacity factor fossil sites and adding storage to existing wind/solar that has seen accreditation cut with increased penetration.

A Tuesday night get together sounds good to me

There can be capacity value in addition to fuel value. The combined resource is more likely to show up than the single one. But this depends on grid operator rules that allow for accessing the capacity value and an underlying capacity accreditation regime that gives it credit.

Great paper... for BPS, surplus interconnection reduces the study burden on operators by allowing new resources to connect without full interconnection studies = fewer upgrades and simpler reliability checks are needed + helping clear backlogged interconnection queues faster. 🔌💡

Argh, I need an edit button. The process "to" hook up to the system...

Even scratching the surface of the potential could play a big role in meeting the demands of growing load across the country. But that will take concerted action from grid operators, state regulators, and market participants. Significant positive steps forward are being taken in PJM and elsewhere.

Our report accompanies a technical analysis demonstrating tremendous potential (thousands of gigawatts!) for surplus interconnection across the country. www.scarcitytosurplus.com @ricoconnell.bsky.social

With "surplus interconnection", energy resources can move through the process hook up to the system in months rather than the typical 5+ years. @energyabe.bsky.social and I have a new report with GridLab on how to advance its use: surplusinterconnection.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/2025-02-21_G...

#EnergySky friends, we are releasing a set of papers today outlining how #SurplusInterconnection can unlock GW of new resources. Surplus is a way to plug wind and solar into existing thermal plants.

Check out our papers, along with a cool interactive dashboard, here: www.scarcitytosurplus.com

Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's "Department of Government Efficiency" Regulatory Initiative By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:       Section 1.

Trump orders federal agencies to grant reckless, sweeping amnesty for corporate lawbreakers of federal health, safety, environmental, civil rights & labor laws
• orders termination of valid & ongoing law enforcement when inconsistent with "Administration policy"
www.whitehouse.gov/presidential... 1/

How to reduce large load speculation? Standardize the interconnection process. We can haphazardly continue down the path of a fragmented and increasingly untenable approach to large load-side interconnection, or we can introduce rational standardization to the process.

Fixing load interconnection is an increasingly important issue. Some thoughts from @allisonclements.bsky.social and Peter Freed: www.utilitydive.com/news/data-ce...

This agency is the place that stops hackers from shutting down the power grid

Client Alert: Independent Agencies Under a Microscope—What Are the Implications for FERC? In his second week in office, President Trump fired Gwynne Wilcox (a member of the NLRB). The firing was communicated by an email sent from the Deputy Director of the Office of Presidential Personnel…

Also, this seems like a decent summary. But it would be nice if it acknowledged that the firm is currently suing FERC claiming that its structure violates the Constitution. www.jenner.com/en/news-insi...

Yes, how FERC and its staff respond will be critical here. Definitely an issue to watch closely.

First Test of Trump’s Power to Fire Officials Reaches Supreme Court The court’s conservative majority may be receptive to the argument that presidents have unlimited power to remove leaders of independent agencies.

But this administration seems determined to push the boundaries of settled Supreme Court precedent on independent agencies (Humphrey's Executor), so the court challenges are very high stakes: www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/u...