Three regulators look for more room on the grid already built

Serguey Asael Shinder02 October 2026, 07:382 min read

Three announcements this week, from three continents, start from the same constraint: renewable projects and new loads are queuing faster than transmission can be built. Each looks for capacity in rules rather than in steel.

South Korea: count what the grid can really take. The climate and energy ministry is replacing hard connection limits with curtailable access, using storage instead of new lines in saturated areas, clawing back connection rights from projects that will not be built, and modelling renewables in their real dispatch order ahead of fossil plants. It projects transmission-level hosting capacity rising from 119 GW to 171 GW by 2030, mostly without new construction. The cost is that curtailment risk moves to developers. Source: https://www.pv-magazine.com/2026/10/01/south-korea-grid-overhaul-to-connect-more-than-100-gw-of-renewables

Maharashtra: bring storage to connect. The state regulator's draft rules would require new wind and solar projects to install storage, either 50% of their connection capacity for two hours or 25% for four, as a condition of connection, applying even to pending applications. Storage flattens the output the network has to absorb, so the same connection serves more generation. Source: https://www.energy-storage.news/maharashtras-regulator-proposes-mandatory-bess-for-renewable-projects-seeking-grid-connectivity-in-indian-state

Virginia: measure before you build. Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power must propose grid utilisation metrics to their regulator by 15 October, under a state law passed in April. An industry coalition, whose members sell tools to raise utilisation, has proposed defining it as delivered over deliverable energy, reported both against a fixed rating and against usable capacity. Source: https://www.utilitydive.com/news/looking-beyond-peak-how-measure-grid-utilization/831533

What connects them. In each case the regulator is changing who carries the risk of a full grid. In Korea it is the generator accepting curtailment; in Maharashtra, the generator paying for storage; in Virginia, potentially the utility, once a utilisation number exists to be judged against. Building more lines is still needed everywhere. These measures decide how much has to be built, and who pays while it is.