Review of Nova Scotia's Generation Interconnection Process
In response to 2022 Nova Scotia legislation, the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board commissioned Synapse under Matter M10905 to review the Province’s generation resource interconnection process. The review encompassed Nova Scotia Power, Inc.’s (NSPI) interconnection protocols for generation and storage resources connected both to the bulk transmission system and to the distribution system. The purpose was to assess the need to update the process as Nova Scotia’s energy resource mix transforms in response to the Province’s greenhouse gas emissions targets: the electric grid will likely need to connect growing amounts of new renewable and battery energy storage resources in a timely way. Provincial legislation requires that the process provide the best value for ratepayers and consistency and predictability for generators as the grid.
Synapse held two public technical conferences, gathered multiple rounds of stakeholder feedback, and produced a final report with findings and recommendations on NSPI’s generation interconnection procedures. The review focused on core issues such as treatment of battery energy storage, grid impact study requirements and procedures, treatment of small resources interconnecting to the distribution grid, use of hosting capacity information, and cost allocation issues. Our recommendations included implementing a permanent increase in NSPI’s capacity for interconnection studies rather than temporary boosts, a new cost allocation approach for distribution network upgrades that benefits more than just the first mover interconnection customer, and a shift to dynamic hosting capacity information dissemination to better coordinate with distributed energy resource providers for maximum benefit to ratepayers and NSPI’s reliability needs. The Board filed the final report in September 2023.