The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s landmark interconnection reform, known as Order No. 2023, rejecting legal challenges from utilities and grid operators who argued the agency overstepped its authority. The ruling clears the path for a wholesale overhaul of how generation and storage projects queue for grid access, replacing the first-come, first-served study process that has left more than 2,600 gigawatts of capacity — mostly solar, wind, and battery storage — stuck in years-long backlogs across the country’s regional transmission organizations.
The interconnection queue crisis has become the single largest structural barrier to U.S. decarbonization. Under the old rules, developers submitted speculative requests that clogged study pipelines, while transmission providers lacked incentives to process requests efficiently or build needed upgrades. Order No. 2023 introduces cluster-based studies, stricter commercial readiness requirements, financial penalties for withdrawn projects, and firm deadlines for transmission providers to complete analyses. The court’s affirmation means these mechanisms can now take effect without the threat of a judicial stay that would have frozen implementation indefinitely.
For developers, the decision brings regulatory certainty after years of procedural limbo. Projects that meet new deposit and milestone requirements will move through studies on a fixed timeline, reducing the carrying costs that have killed otherwise viable projects. For RTOs and ISOs, the ruling is a mandate to modernize study tools, staffing, and coordination with transmission owners — capabilities many have underinvested in for decades. The real test begins now: whether grid operators can execute the cultural and operational shift from passive study administrators to active queue managers without simply creating new bottlenecks at the cluster-study stage.
FERC Chairman Willie Phillips called the decision “a critical victory for electric reliability and affordability,” but the commission’s work is far from complete. Order No. 2023 addresses process; it does not solve the underlying transmission capacity shortfall that forces costly network upgrades onto individual projects. A separate FERC rulemaking on long-term transmission planning and cost allocation (Order No. 1920) and ongoing reforms to generator interconnection procedures for large load customers remain essential companions. The court has handed FERC the authority to fix the queue — delivering the grid the clean energy transition needs will require using that authority aggressively and repeatedly.
Read the full report at Energy Storage News.