The continued growth of the distributed solar market in the United States has spurred electric utilities, regulators, and stakeholders to consider improvements to distributed generation (DG) interconnection processes. More than 475,000 solar energy systems were interconnected in the U.S. by the end of 2013, but 1 million are expected by the end of 2017. Based on the SunShot Initiative's current trajectory, permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII) soft costs are expected to drop from a current cost of $0.17/watt to $0.14/watt by 2020. While the actual cost metrics for utility PII are undetermined, they are real. A survey and interviews conducted by Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) in 2014 have uncovered utility initiatives to lower the administrative costs of DG interconnection, making the process of connecting to the grid simpler and more transparent for customers.
| Date | October 2014 |
| Topic | Codes, Standards & Utility Policies; Solar Basics & Educating Consumers; Financing, Incentives and Market Analysis; Planning, Zoning, Permitting & Interconnection |
| Subprogram | Soft Costs |
| Author | Solar Electric Power Association |