BESS Interconnection Management

A Queue Position Is Only an Asset If Someone Is Managing It.

Owner’s-side interconnection management built for battery storage. We screen where to connect, file the application, track every deadline and deposit, and turn each study result into a clear decision.

Interconnection Runs Longer Than Anything Else on a BESS Project. Manage It That Way.

Interconnection is the longest-running workstream in BESS development. It starts before the land is signed, and it is still open when the battery equipment is selected. Along the way it carries filing windows, cure periods, study deposits, security postings, and decision points where the right answer may be to withdraw.

Most development teams carry this alongside everything else. The deadlines live in an inbox. The study reports arrive as engineering documents, not as decisions. A late equipment change can put the queue position at risk, and nobody sees it until the ISO does.

Carina manages BESS interconnection on the owner’s side, from choosing where to connect through protecting the queue position during development. Every deadline, deposit, study, and decision sits in one place, under an interconnection lead who has run these studies himself and has worked both the utility side and the developer side of the process.

Built for Battery Storage, Not Adapted from Solar.

This practice does one thing: interconnection for battery storage projects, standalone or co-located. A battery is not studied like a solar or wind plant. Three differences shape the work.

A battery charges as well as discharges.

The ISO studies what the project injects. In many markets it also studies what the battery draws from the grid. How the charging behavior is described in the application can change the upgrades assigned to the project.

The studied equipment is rarely the installed equipment.

Most developers file years before they select a battery manufacturer. The inverters and their models will change. A modification request should be planned for from the first filing, not discovered at procurement.

Interconnection and equipment selection sit with one team.

Carina’s battery engineers and interconnection lead work from the same project plan. An equipment change is checked against the studied assumptions before it is made, not after.

What You Get

You know where your battery project can connect before you commit money to land or deposits.

Applications go in complete and on time, and deficiency notices are cured fast.

No deadline, deposit, or security posting is missed.

Every study result is translated into cost, timeline, and a proceed-or-withdraw recommendation.

Equipment and design changes reach the ISO as a clean modification request, not a surprise.

How Carina Operates

We Direct the Studies. We Deliver the Decision.

Running the model is the smallest part of an interconnection study. The hard part is everything around it: which point to test, at what size, under which dispatch and base case assumptions, and what the result means for your cost and schedule. Carina owns that part.

Our interconnection lead writes the scope and assumptions for every study, directs the study provider that runs the models, and tests each result against his own read of the system before it reaches you. Where a result does not hold up, we challenge it, with the provider and with the ISO. What you receive is not a study report. It is a recommendation, with the cost, the timeline, and the reasoning behind it.

This is how the interconnection team at a major power producer works: senior planners set the strategy, and outside study firms supply the modeling capacity. Carina gives you that senior planner on every position, without the permanent headcount.

Carina sets the scope and assumptions.

The study provider runs the models.

Carina tests the result and delivers the recommendation.

The practice is led by a licensed Professional Engineer with more than 20 years in power system analysis. He has spent that career running studies, not only managing them: load flow, contingency, short circuit, stability, and electromagnetic transient analysis. He did that work as a consulting engineer and as a utility transmission planner, then as interconnection manager for independent power producers across PJM, SPP, and MISO. He knows what to ask a study provider for, and he can tell when a result is wrong. A certified PMP runs the queue tracker, the deadline calendar, and document control day to day.

What the Practice Covers

Six Questions BESS Developers Ask. One Team That Answers Them.

Each part of the practice is built around the question a developer is asking at that stage. They can be engaged together or one at a time.

Where to Connect

“Where should I connect, and when should I file?”

We rank candidate points of interconnection by available capacity, queue congestion, likely upgrade exposure, and risk to neighboring systems. We test whether your target battery capacity fits at the chosen point and report it as red, yellow, or green. Then we set the queue entry strategy: the filing window, the site control the ISO requires, and the deposit and milestone schedule. Where the utility offers a pre-filing meeting, we take it.

Deliverables: POI Screening Memo, Queue Entry Strategy Memo, Injection Capacity Screen.

Application

“Get it in complete and on time.”

We assemble the interconnection request: forms, site control evidence, technical data, the conceptual single-line diagram, and the models the ISO requires. We collect executed options or leases from the land team in time for the site control requirement. Reviewers apply different criteria, so the goal is a complete filing and fast cures inside the cure period. We attend the scoping meeting and answer data requests.

Deliverables: submitted interconnection request with confirmed queue position, data submission log.

Queue Management

“Don’t let me miss anything.”

One dashboard shows every position: status, study phase, next milestone, and money at risk. Behind it sits a calendar of every deadline, deposit, and security posting. Each quarter you receive a queue status report covering queue reforms, restudy triggers, and upcoming security deadlines, with a memo on your financial exposure. We track interconnection agreement execution, security postings, and milestone and suspension dates. If you decide to withdraw, we coordinate the withdrawal and track the refund.

Deliverables: live queue dashboard, deposit tracker, quarterly exposure memo.

Study Review and Decisions

“What will it cost, and should I stay in?”

Each study phase gets a plain-language review: upgrade cost, cost allocation, timeline, and affected system exposure. At each decision point we give you a proceed-or-withdraw analysis. Where the market offers a choice of service type, we recommend one. The validated interconnection costs go into your financial model as a clean input sheet.

Deliverables: Study Results and Decision Memo for each study phase, Service Type Recommendation Memo, Interconnection Cost Input Sheet.

Protecting Your Position

“Don’t let design or equipment choices cost me my position.”

During design, we check the 30% single-line diagram and the battery equipment specifications against the assumptions the ISO studied. We warn the team before a change would need a modification request. Once the final equipment is selected, we prepare and submit the modification request package. We also keep permitting milestones and interconnection milestones aligned in the project plan, so a permit delay does not become a missed interconnection date.

Deliverables: Interconnection Design Alignment Memo, Modification Request Package.

Interconnection Due Diligence

“Is this position worth buying or financing?”

A fixed-scope review of a BESS queue position or project you are acquiring or financing. We review the existing studies, agreements, deposit status, and modification exposure. The output is a set of red, yellow, and green risk flags with recommended deal terms.

Deliverable: Interconnection Risk Memo.

Four Ways to Engage

Where your projects are today decides where we start.

Land Campaign Support

For developers originating new BESS sites. Point-of-interconnection screening and queue strategy tell the land team where to look and when site control must be in hand.

Embedded in Development and Permitting

For projects already in a Carina Owner’s Representative engagement. Interconnection runs as a workstream inside the project plan, with the same team and the same controls.

Queue Portfolio Management

For developers holding BESS queue positions that are too early for development work. We manage every position in one dashboard: deadlines, cures, and study reviews. Positions that become real projects move into development without re-onboarding.

Interconnection Due Diligence –

For developers, independent power producers, funds, and lenders acquiring or financing a BESS project. A fixed-scope risk review of the queue position before you commit.

Interconnection and Land Now Run Together.

Most queues now require site control at application, typically 100% of the generating facility, or financial security in its place where the ISO or utility allows it. That means the land strategy and the queue strategy have to be built around the same dates.

Carina runs both. Point-of-interconnection screening ranks where capacity exists, and the land team targets parcels near the top-ranked points. The filing window sets the site control deadline, and that deadline becomes the target date for option negotiations. When a parcel moves into Site Diligence, the same interconnection findings feed the grid access section of the assessment.

Learn more about Greenfield Origination →

Learn more about Site Diligence and Fatal Flaw Analysis →

Where We Work

PJM

SPP

Southern Company

(Georgia Power, Alabama Power, Mississippi Power)

NYISO

MISO

Other markets and utility processes, including CAISO, ISO-NE, WECC, and distributed generation pipelines, are evaluated and priced case by case.

Pricing

Queue Portfolio Management

$5,000/month

per ISO, RTO, or utility

Covers up to five BESS queue positions in that market. Includes the queue dashboard, the deadline, deposit, and security calendar, the quarterly status and exposure memo, and routine oversight of each position by the interconnection lead.

Existing Carina Clients

$4,000/month

per ISO, RTO, or utility

For clients with an active land origination or Development and Permitting engagement.

Project-Specific Work

Scoped per engagement

Point-of-interconnection screening, applications, study reviews, modification requests, and due diligence are quoted for the specific position or project.

Third-Party Studies and ISO Costs

Paid directly by the developer

You engage and pay the study provider, and you post deposits, security, and ISO or utility fees. None of these pass through Carina.

What Stays with You, and with the Specialists

You make the proceed-or-withdraw decisions, sign every filing, execute the interconnection agreement, and post deposits and security. Carina does not hold funds or sign on your behalf.

A qualified study provider runs the power system models under its own software licenses, to the scope and assumptions Carina sets. Stamped engineering deliverables come from an Engineer of Record you engage directly.

This service covers generator interconnection for battery storage, including a BESS co-located with solar or with a data center. It does not cover load interconnection requests.

Who This Is For

Developers originating new BESS sites

You are about to spend money on land and want to know where the grid can take the project first. We screen the points of interconnection before the land team starts making calls.

Developers holding early queue positions

You have BESS positions in the queue and no development team assigned to them yet. We keep every deadline and deposit current, and tell you which positions are worth carrying forward.

Development teams without a dedicated interconnection manager

Your team is experienced, and interconnection sits on someone’s desk as one job among many. We take the workstream and report into your team. If you already have an interconnection manager, we work alongside that role and do not duplicate it.

Independent power producers, funds, and lenders

You are acquiring or financing a BESS project and the queue position is a large part of the value. We tell you what the position carries: upgrade cost, deposit exposure, and modification risk.

What Comes Next

A queue position that survives the studies is a project. When that happens, the position moves into Carina’s Development and Permitting engagement without restarting: the same team, the same project plan, and the interconnection history already in the data room.

Interconnection management often leads into development, but the service stands on its own regardless of what follows.

Learn more about Development and Permitting →