FERC Order No. 2023 Upheld by U.S. Court of Appeals 

WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s landmark generator interconnection reforms codified in Order No. 2023. 

Caitlin Marquis, Managing Director at Advanced Energy United, reacted to the decision: 

“The old way of getting large-scale energy projects connected to the power grid was antiquated and holding back economic growth, and this decision affirms our industry’s push for big reforms. 

As grid operators and states across the country work together to speed generator interconnection, FERC Order No. 2023 provides a baseline from which to build, including the switch to a first-ready, first-served cluster process. 

Even with these changes, the process remains unnecessarily slow and unpredictable. With Order No. 2023 officially upheld in court, we can now focus on further reforms that improve speed to power.”

Advanced Energy United strongly supported FERC’s order overall, but challenged one small element of the order that would apply overly punitive penalties on projects that withdraw at late stages due to unanticipated price spikes. While Advanced Energy United is disappointed to see the court rule with the Commission on that issue, it is pleased to see the overall ruling uphold the Order.

A recent report by Advanced Energy United with Brattle Group and Grid Strategies provided new assessments of ongoing reforms to generator interconnection process among the major RTO/ISOs in 2026. The report identified the Southwest Power Pool’s Consolidated Planning Process (CPP), which provides upfront certainty, as a model approach that should help developers avoid late-stage, project-killing cost spikes. The report also found that while most grid operators are making progress on relieving longstanding interconnection queue bottlenecks, grid connection processes are still largely too slow and unpredictable.