Today, Pearl Street Technologies officially launches Interconnect™, a software solution built to help project developers assess and manage risk in the interconnection process. Through custom scenario analyses, Interconnect™ enables developers to navigate uncertainty and make data-driven decisions to steer more projects to successful deployment.
Despite record growth in renewable development, the interconnection process remains a substantial barrier to bringing abundant, clean energy online. In fact, research published by Berkeley Lab suggests that fewer than 20% of proposed projects make it to commercial operation. Although the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee (FERC) recently issued new rules to reform the interconnection process and “unlock” the queue, project developers still grapple with long study timelines and substantial uncertainty throughout the interconnection lifecycle.
Pearl Street addresses this uncertainty head-on. The company’s new product, Interconnect™, is a one-stop solution for quickly assessing interconnection risk at scale: automated model building, thermal analysis, constraint identification, mitigation determination, and cost allocation across any number of user-defined scenarios, with results returned in hours, not weeks. At critical decision points, developers can leverage this high-quality data to inform whether they stay in line or exit the queue.
Interconnect™ leverages Pearl Street’s core technology SUGAR™ (Suite of Unified Grid Analyses with Renewables), a simulation and optimization platform used by ISOs/RTOs and utilities for grid reliability planning and interconnection studies. SUGAR™’s robust simulation and modeling capabilities allow grid operators and utilities to accelerate some of the more time-consuming aspects of planning studies, reducing engineering analysis time by up to 200x. Nearly 130 GW of queued generation and storage projects have been modeled in SUGAR™ to date, helping customers like Southwest Power Pool reach key milestones in clearing their queue backlog.
Interconnect™’s key features include:
- User-friendly interface for developers, capital providers, PPA brokers, and more
- Automated model building with user-defined assumptions
- Detailed reporting on projects, thermal constraints, mitigation, and cost allocation
- Same-day results
- Live and historical queue tracking across all seven (7) ISOs and a growing number of utilities
- Premium support from interconnection experts
By tackling the interconnection challenge from multiple angles, Pearl Street is positioned to become synonymous with the interconnection of renewable energy. “When we talk about accelerating interconnection studies or helping developers navigate the interconnection process successfully, we mean one thing: renewable energy coming online quicker and more reliably,” says CEO and Co-Founder, David Bromberg.
Both Interconnect™ and SUGAR™ are currently being piloted by project developers, grid operators, and utilities to minimize or otherwise maneuver through the interconnection backlog.
Pearl Street Technologies is an interconnection solutions company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Backed by best-in-class venture capital firms VoLo Earth, Pear VC, Powerhouse Ventures, and Incite, Pearl Street’s mission is to help expedite the transition to a decarbonized grid. The company’s portfolio includes its two software products, Interconnect™ and SUGAR™ (Suite of Unified Grid Analyses with Renewables). Interconnect™ is a customized risk analysis platform for project developers, aiming to provide certainty throughout the interconnection lifecycle. SUGAR™ is utilized by grid operators and utilities to accelerate study timelines through its robust modeling and simulation capabilities. To date, Pearl Street’s software solutions have been used to model nearly 1000 queued renewable generation projects nationwide.