The state Board of Public Utilities is taking an initial step to modernize an aging power grid by trying to speed up the process of connecting new solar-panel systems to distribution systems operated by local utilities.

The current process has been beset by lengthy delays in connecting new solar projects with the power grid. In part that’s because of continuing growth in the sector and also because utilities, particularly in South Jersey, have shut off connections to a large number of their circuits where segments of the system are already at capacity.

Without fixing the problems, the issue could set up barriers to achieving the Murphy administration’s clean-energy goals, advocates say. The state’s Energy Master Plan projects that solar energy will provide 34% of electricity in New Jersey by 2050. It now produces only 4% of electricity used by residents and businesses.

The initiative is the first of many steps to upgrade a power grid that has not been updated for decades at a time when it is being asked to integrate new technologies that could clean the air and reduce global warming and even lower costs to consumers.

Adding connections

“The first place to modernize the grid is to ensure we can connect more clean energy to the grid,’’ said Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey and a supporter of the process at the BPU. “Right now, in some regions of the state we are already tapped out.’’

Fred DeSanti, executive director of the New Jersey Solar Energy Coalition, said he welcomes the state looking at the problem, but questions why it will take until next May to deal with the issue.

With the state restructuring the solar program this past summer, it gave solar companies 12 months to complete new installations, including solving interconnections issues, or lose financial incentives awarded under the project, DeSanti said. “At the same time, my guys are getting letters from utilities saying it is going to take 14 months,’’ he said.

In a notice from the BPU, the agency said the first three meetings are designed to establish the scope and set the context for relevant interconnection policies and procedures and will culminate in a draft report next March of findings and recommendations.

Updates needed

To enable clean energy to be generated at an accelerated pace and as effectively and efficiently as possible, New Jersey’s interconnection rules and processes require updating, according to the agency.

Among other things, these updates include revisions to the interconnection process; modernization of utility processes for studying interconnection requests, and updates needed to coordinate interconnections with the regional transmission system, BPU said.

They also may mean a reallocation of costs between a solar developer and utility over who pays for the upgrades needed for an interconnection. That issue also is being debated as part of President Joe Biden’s reconciliation package, which, at this point, includes money for grid modernization.

“We need federal dollars to modernize the broader PJM electric grid,’’ O’Malley said, referring to the nation’s largest power grid, which includes New Jersey and 14 other states as well as the District of Columbia.

Sixty percent of U.S. distribution lines have surpassed their 50-year life expectancy, according to Black Veatch, an engineering and construction company, while the Battle Investment Group estimates that $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion will be spent by 2030 to modernize the grid just to maintain reliability, the National Council of State Legislatures said in a report.

“Overall, the utilities have to be responsible to do these upgrades and recover those costs from rate base,’’ said Lyle Rawlings, founder and president of Advanced Solar Products in Flemington.

Game-changer

In New Jersey, the state faces many issues beyond interconnecting new forms of distributed resources like solar energy. The shift to electrification in both the building and the transportation sectors represents some of those problems.

For Public Service Electric & Gas, widespread adoption of electric vehicles will be a game-changer for the state’s largest utility, according to Ed Gray, director of transmission and distribution engineering.

“We expect there could be 600,000 EVs charging in our service area by the end of the decade, which will require significant investments in our system. Much of that work will be what we refer to as the ‘last mile’ of improvements — upgrading the networks that service residential customers,’’ he said.

“We, as a state and nation, need to invest much more in upgrading and modernizing our power   grid — from a resiliency perspective, a reliance perspective and efficiency perspective,’’ said Raymond Cantor, a vice president of the New Jersey Business & Industry Association.