CAL ISO's Plan to Speed Up Grid Connections

CAL ISO is about to submit a plan to feds that changes the way it reviews applications to connect to the grid. Currently, producers say the process takes too long and that valuable supply is being kept off-line. There is a backlog of 360 applications right now.

CAL ISO proposes to review applications in "clusters" rather than individually and, as part of that operational change, it plans to raise the application fee from $10,000 to....

Wait for it....

$250,000.

25x.

The theory they offered in defense of this stratospheric raise is that it will weed out the good projects from the bad ones by discouraging marginal, less viable enterprises from applying.

Maybe this Swiftian logic can be applied to taxes in general. Can't you just see Don Perata or someone standing up and saying that "by raising taxes 25 times their current level, we hope to discourage lower income individuals from living."

Not surprisingly, CAL ISO's plan has not been met with universal approval.

California Moves To Speed Solar, Wind Power Grid Connections [Dow Jones Newswires]