DESRI Chief Development Officer discusses pipeline in MISO and PJM

With a development pipeline spanning 30 states, DE Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) has seen interconnection reform play out across multiple grid operators and knows first-hand how it has impacted clean energy development.

DESRI’s long-time Chief Development Officer Hy Martin sees this as a strategic advantage for well-positioned developers with significant capital commitments.

“We are optimistic for faster study periods and the prospect of fewer restudies for future projects that undergo the interconnection process.”

DESRI has felt the impact firsthand in MISO as one of the region’s larger developers. Martin has seen the consolidation efforts of increased security postings especially in recent queues with large attrition like the 2021 DPP1 cluster before DPP2’s material non-refundable posting. The stakes will also get higher in the 2023 queue cycle, tentatively slated to begin on March 18, as it will be the first to incorporate FERC’s approved reform changes, including higher milestone payments, automatic withdrawal penalties and more stringent siting requirements.

“In many ways, interconnection queue reform is doing its job by eliminating less mature development positions and less-well capitalized players.”

According to NPM queue data, DESRI has 15 pre-operational applications for solar projects in MISO totaling 2 GW, including a 300 MW project with Entergy Texas with a point-of-interconnection (POI) location at the Chisholm RD-Hartburg 230kV and forecasted actual service date of October 2026. Martin says DESRI’s pipeline in MISO, overall is in the 4 GW to 5 GW range.

Another area where DESRI has its biggest concentration of near-term projects at present is PJM. The grid operator finally brought some clarity to its own backlog issues after announcing in mid-December projects slated for Fast Track and Transition Cluster 1.

“Our DESRI projects are well-positioned across the maturity spectrum, pre-PJM queue reform, signed ISAs, Fast Track eligible projects and strategically positioned transition cluster studies,” said Martin, adding that “thoughtful greenfield siting paired with access to capital will be as important as ever as PJM’s cluster process starts to resemble MISOs in the coming years.”

Some of its most advanced projects are in PJM, ISO-NE and MISO.

This includes 120 MW Gravel Pit Solar in Hartford County, Connecticut, which is slated to commercialize by the end of this year and is in ISO-NE. Another project, 160 MW Chester Solar (PJM) in Chesterfield County, Virginia is pre-NTP but is also close to advancing as the project got clearance from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) in September 2023 and has a long-term PPA in place with Meta.

A third project, 240 MW Dolet Hills Solar in De Soto Parish, Louisiana (MISO) is pre-NTP, but also advanced with a long-term PPA in place with Cleco Power and forecasted 2025 COD.

“Several facilities are replacing conventional generation resources, such as Dolet Hills (replacing the retired Dolet Hills Ignite-fired power plant) and projects serving data center demand (including Chester Solar), noted Martin.

Overall, DESRI has a 20 GW uncontracted pipeline, inclusive of 10 GW of storage across every ISO. It also has 9 GW of operating projects and projects under construction and under-contract.

In recent years, it secured USD 400m in funds managed by Harbert Infrastructure in June 2022 and this past November an additional USD 250m long-term financing facility from Ullico Infrastructure Fund (UJF) to support its pipeline growth.

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers last month.

New Project Media (NPM) is a leading data, intelligence and events company dedicated to providing origination led coverage of the renewable energy market for the development, finance, advisory & corporate community.

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