Con Edison Interconnection Queue Updates in June 2025

Battery storage development in Con Edison's interconnection queue continues to gain momentum. Over the two-month period from April through May 2025, Developers submitted 104 new interconnection requests across the 5 boroughs in Con Edison territory - nearly matching the 111 requests submitted across the entire first quarter.

This latest queue movement reflects not only sustained interest in the market, but also growing pressure on grid planning and interconnection infrastructure. Below, we break down queue activity across five key categories:

• New Applications

• CESIR Progress

• Upgrade Cost Estimates

• Payment Milestones

• Withdrawals and Attrition

New Interconnection Queue Activity 🟦

A total of 104 new interconnection requests were registered in April-May with uniquely high activity in the month of May, which registered 78 new applications, roughly 70% of the total for all of Q1'25. For comparison, monthly application counts year-to-date:

• January: 37

• February: 33

• March: 41

• April: 26

• May: 78

Despite sustained activity levels, it remains highly concentrated among a subset of Developers that have established a clear focus on the region. For the April-May period, applications were spread across 15 Developers with the top 5 registering nearly 85% of all submissions, including:

• Orenda: 52 applications

• New Leaf Energy: 15

• NineDot Energy: 9

• MicroGrid Networks: 7

• Arena Renewables: 6

This mirrors the distribution from Q1, which saw 16 unique Developers participate across the 111 submissions, led by NineDot (30), Orenda (25), and New Leaf (20). The consistency in participants suggests a highly active - and increasingly strategic - group of developers shaping the pipeline across Con Edison territory. While the market remains wide open for new participants, the high degree of difficulty in permitting, constructing, and gaining approval for these projects clearly favors repeat players in the market.

CESIR Review Progress 🟦

During the April–May 2025 period, 65 existing interconnection requests advanced into CESIR (Coordinated Electric System Interconnection Review), a critical engineering step where utilities evaluate system impact and determine upgrade requirements.

This level of CESIR activity represents significant queue progression, signaling that dozens of projects have cleared initial screening and are now under detailed technical review.

Developer Breakdown (CESIR Starts):

• Orenda: 25

• NineDot Energy: 19

• Remaining 21 CESIR entries were spread across 13 other Developers

The vast majority of requests that moved into CESIR Review in the April-May period originated in late Q4'24 or early Q1'25, suggesting a timeline of roughly ~5 months from Application Start to CESIR Start.

Upgrade Cost Milestones 🟦

A total of 15 projects had estimated upgrade costs added to their queue records during April and May. This is a critical step occurring after the CESIR Review as the utility identifies the specific infrastructure improvements needed to support the interconnection request.

Upgrade cost estimates are a turning point for Developers: it introduces real financial clarity that informs go/no-go decisions. These figures directly influence whether a project proceeds to payment and construction, or is withdrawn from the queue altogether.

While not every project receiving an upgrade estimate will move forward, this stage provides the earliest quantitative insight into feasibility and can be a leading indicator for future payment and planned development activity.

Payment Activity 🟦

During the April–May 2025 period, Developers continued to push projects forward with financial commitments on interconnection upgrades:

• 5 projects made Down Payments

  • Convergent Energy + Power: 2

  • NineDot Energy: 2

  • New Leaf Energy: 1

• 12 projects made Full Payments, totaling $11.5 million

  • Orenda: 9 payments

  • NineDot Energy: 2 payments

  • RWE Clean Energy: 1 payment

The increase in full payments marks a critical inflection point in the interconnection process. This milestone not only signals a Developer’s commitment to funding required grid upgrades, but also serves as the strongest indicator of actual project development activity within the queue.

Unlike earlier milestones, where attrition is common, projects that reach full payment status are highly likely to proceed - historically, only 12% of such projects are later withdrawn. This also serves as the final datapoint available before a project receives its Letter of Acceptance, making it one of the only publicly available markers of near-term deployment trends.

Withdrawals & Queue Attrition 🟦

Despite strong momentum in new applications and queue movement, 37 interconnection requests were withdrawn during April and May. Notably, over 70% of withdrawals came from just 2 Developers - New Leaf with 14 and NineDot with 12 - highlighting the volatility and unpredictability facing Con Edison and the market at large.

Withdrawals are typically driven by 1 of 3 factors for Developers:

1. Estimated Upgrade Costs are provided following CESIR Review and the cost of interconnection at the proposed location simply renders the project unfeasible for Developers, leading them to abandon the intended site location.

2. Application Churn caused by Developers submitting duplicative applications with no intention to pursue more than one of the requests. This is caused by Developer's attempts to simultaneously evaluate multiple site and feeder locations for a specific substation before selecting the most cost effective option.

3. Failed Development Efforts are a final reason for withdrawals, either because the Developer was unable to secure necessary financing, their desired site location faced zoning or permitting challenges etc.