FERC Final Rules Establish New Interconnection Requirements For Distributed Energy Resources And Wind Generators

On July 21, 2016, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the "Commission") issued a final rule ("Order No. 828") modifying the pro forma Small Generator Interconnection Agreement (SGIA) to require newly interconnecting small generating facilities — 20 MW or less — to ride through abnormal frequency and voltage events and not disconnect during such events. This final rule ended the exemption for small generating facilities from the ride-through requirements applied to large generating facilities. Order No. 828 comes on the heels of the Commission's adoption in June of Order No. 827, which requires newly interconnecting wind generators to provide reactive power at the high side of the generator substation. This separate rule similarly ended a decade-old exemption for wind plants and other nonsynchronous generators from the requirement to supply reactive power applicable to all other generators.