Grid in Focus: The Interconnection Reform Series, Part 2

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This post is Part 2 of the Grid in Focus series. If you missed Part 1, read it here.

The Developer’s Dilemma: Why Better Data Is the Key to Project Viability

For energy developers, the interconnection process often feels like a game of chance. You’ve invested capital, assembled a siting strategy, run your models—and now you’re submitting interconnection requests across multiple nodes, hoping something sticks. According to a 2023 report by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, developers often submit speculative interconnection requests as a form of discovery, due to the lack of visibility into system conditions and planning criteria (PNNL, 2023). A 2025 Utility Dive article echoes this reality, noting that speculative filings have become common due to the lack of transparency in the interconnection process, and as a result of phantom load.  (Utility Dive, 2025).

This isn’t about gaming the system. It’s about navigating blindfolded—because the interconnection process doesn’t reveal what developers need to see.

The Real Risk Developers Face

Ask any experienced energy developer, and they’ll tell you the same thing: the stakes are high, and the path is unclear. You might spend months securing land rights, coordinating with local permitting authorities, and investing in environmental reviews—only to discover, deep into the process, that your chosen node is already overloaded or your project conflicts with an unpublicized constraint. One developer we spoke with described it as “trying to architect a skyscraper before you’ve seen the zoning map.”

This isn’t just frustrating—it’s expensive. Developers are regularly asked to make multimillion-dollar decisions with very limited visibility. Without access to real-time queue congestion, transmission constraints, or in-flight application data, many are left guessing. And those guesses carry consequences: not only in sunk costs, but in the grid-wide inefficiencies caused by speculative filings and project attrition.

This risk isn’t inherent to energy generation—it’s a byproduct of opaque systems. With the right tools, developers could prioritize viable projects from the start, aligning their investment strategies with actual grid capacity and long-term planning.

In today’s environment, developers are asked to make multimillion-dollar decisions with limited visibility into:

• Grid topology and transmission constraints
• Queue congestion at specific substations
• In-flight applications that may affect their own
• Zoning, permitting, and state-level appetite for new resources
• Historical acceptance trends for similar project types and locations

The Missed Opportunity: Strategic Project Targeting

Picture this: you’re evaluating your next set of project proposals, trying to decide where to place your bets. You’ve already spent thousands modeling various sites—but what you really need is insight. What’s in the queue? What’s getting built? Where are the bottlenecks—and where’s the system hungry for new resources? Without this context, you’re stuck doing what most developers do: chasing limited clues, filing broadly, and hoping that one of your projects gets through.

Now imagine a different scenario. You log into a platform and instantly see which substations are overloaded, which zones are in active planning, and which types of projects transmission providers actually want to see. You run your site assumptions through congestion maps and reliability overlays. You evaluate each proposal not just by cost or capacity, but by its actual odds of approval.

Use Case: A developer tests three siting hypotheses in-platform and identifies which location has lowest congestion and highest approval probability—before submitting.

Suddenly, you’re not playing darts in the dark. You’re designing a portfolio with precision—projects that are more likely to succeed, because they’re aligned with system needs from the start.

Data as a Developer Advantage

While today's process forces developers to operate with limited insight, the future of interconnection could look very different. Imagine a platform designed specifically to support early-stage decision-making—where developers can explore siting opportunities based on region, resource type, and interconnection readiness. A space where hypotheses can be tested and refined before committing capital. One that offers earlier visibility into feedback loops with Transmission Owners (TOs) and Transmission Providers (TPs), helping flag potential conflicts before they derail timelines. And most importantly, a unified environment where developers, Transmission Owners (TOs), and Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent System Operators (ISOs) staff can collaborate more transparently and effectively throughout the lifecycle of a project.

The interconnection process doesn’t have to be a guessing game. With better access to actionable data, the path from siting to approval can become far less speculative—and far more strategic. When developers are equipped with meaningful insights from the start, the benefits ripple across the grid:

• Applications become more likely to succeed
• Soft costs drop as fewer resources are wasted
• Project portfolios align more naturally with system needs
• And time to commercial operation is dramatically reduced

Aligning Projects with Purpose, Not Just Pace

Project viability shouldn’t come down to who can submit the most applications—it should reflect who understands the system best. Developers who can align siting strategies with grid needs will increasingly find themselves ahead of the pack. That’s not just about efficiency—it’s about long-term value.

Emerging best practices suggest that proposals which demonstrate locational awareness, realistic timelines, and responsiveness to known constraints are more likely to gain traction. As transmission owners and regional planners seek ways to prioritize projects that actually get built, the interconnection process is shifting from transactional to strategic.

For developers, this presents a unique opportunity: those who build their portfolios with precision, informed by real system context, will help shape a grid that’s not only more reliable—but more ready for what comes next.

What’s Next

In Part 3 of this series, we’ll explore the RTO/ISO perspective—what system operators really need from platform design, and how better data can unlock regional planning and faster grid integration.

Want to learn more about how to modernize your interconnection strategy?
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‍By Tom Coons, VP of Customer Experience, GridUnity
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Tom brings more than 20 years of leadership experience in energy and financial services, with a proven ability to drive enterprise agility, digital transformation, and customer-first strategy. He leads GridUnity’s Customer Success and Professional Services teams, guiding clients through implementation and beyond to maximize value, streamline interconnection, and unlock scalable innovation.