On October 29, 2020, the Interconnection Policy Working Group (IPWG), consisting of the Joint Utilities,

associations representing renewable energy interests, and clean energy developers and finance companies (collectively, the Petitioners), filed a petition requesting amendments to New York

State Standardized Interconnection Requirements (SIR) for New Distributed Generators and Energy Storage Systems 5 MW or Less Connected in Parallel with Utility Distribution Systems (the Petition). The Petition requested that the Commission replace aspects of the cost-sharing rules adopted in the January 2017 Queue Interconnection Management Plan and Cost Allocation Order with new rules developed by the IPWG. The Petition initially addressed only substation and distribution/sub transmission line upgrades.

On January 19, 2021, the Joint Utilities filed a Supplement to the Petition (Supplemental Filing) to extend the IPWG proposal to underground secondary networks. The proposals included in the Petition and Supplemental Filing are referred to here as the “Cost-Sharing 2.0 Proposal.” The Petition asserts that the new rules will remove barriers to the interconnection of distributed generation (DG) and energy storage systems (ESS), consistent with the goals of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA).

On March 18, 2021, the Public Service Commission (Commission) issued an Order Directing Interim Modifications to the New York State Standardized Interconnection Requirements (Interim Modification Order), in which it authorized temporary measures to ensure interconnection applications that would

benefit from a more equitable cost-sharing methodology can remain in the interconnection queue until final Commission action could be taken on the Petition. Specifically, the Commission adopted measures to allow advanced projects to share the upgrade costs and proceed to interconnect, while preserving the queue positions of all impacted applications. At the same time, the Commission declined to fully adopt the Cost-Sharing 2.0 Proposal so that certain provisions, particularly those related to the possibility of ratepayers bearing the unrecovered costs of system upgrades, could be examined further.

Having now undertaken that further analysis, the Commission adopts the Cost-Sharing 2.0 Proposal, subject to the modifications discussed herein, and directs the Joint Utilities to file the amendments to the SIR required to implement the same within 90 days of issuance of this Order.