On August 17, 2026 the New York Public Service Commission issued an Order on Interconnection Costs and Study Timelines in Case 24-E-0621, with Case 24-E-0415 riding along. The order revises the Standardized Interconnection Requirements for distributed generators and storage 5 MW or less. The utilities have to file tariff amendments on not less than 14 days’ notice, to become effective October 1, 2026.
That date is the one to write on the whiteboard. Con Edison, National Grid (Niagara Mohawk), NYSEG, RG&E, Orange and Rockland, and Central Hudson will be updating electric tariffs to match Appendix C of the order. Newspaper publication was waived. If you run SIR jobs in any of those territories, October 1 is when the new cost language is supposed to live in the tariff, not when CESIR studies suddenly get cheap.
What the Commission actually directed
The official home for SIR documents is the Department of Public Service Distributed Generation Information page. The August 17 order is the latest SIR modification in 24-E-0621. It is a different animal from the January 23, 2026 Order on Interconnection Queue Management in the same case, which built a temporary construction-scheduling framework around federal tax-credit deadlines and pushed tariff changes effective February 9, 2026.
The August order is about cost transparency and study clocks. Utilities must publish annual cost matrices for interconnection equipment and upgrades, with the first matrices due March 31, 2027, then update them each March 31 in consultation with the Interconnection Technical Working Group. Starting in 2027 they also have to file how many business days a Coordinated Electric System Interconnection Review actually took, and how long any SIR extension ran.
The Commission did not add a new penalty regime. It noted that utilities already complete most studies inside the 100-day extended SIR window and declined extra performance metrics for now. If you were hoping for automatic credits when a CESIR slips, that is not this order.
What does not change on October 1
The 50 kW AC split is still the daily SIR split. Con Edison’s own interconnection page still describes it the same way: 50 kW and under is small-DG PowerClerk with no application fee. Above 50 kW through 5 MW is large-DG PowerClerk, a $750 application fee, and CESIR plus utility construction when triggered. Wholesale or FERC-jurisdictional work is not a small-DG upload.
PSEG Long Island is not this SIR. Long Island uses LIPA’s Small Generator Interconnection Procedures. Do not drop a Con Edison Appendix F packet on a Hicksville job and hope.
NY-Sun incentives are still a contractor dashboard problem, not a CESIR problem. A closed MW block does not stop an interconnection application. An open adder does not replace written permission to operate.
How to use the order on a live interconnection application
Until October 1, quote the current SIR and the utility’s current cost guide. Con Edison still publishes a Distribution Engineering Cost Guide for typical CESIR-related costs. After October 1, read the compliance tariffs before you lock a large-DG budget. The March 2027 matrices are the first statewide, public price sheets. They will not price your exact feeder in September 2026.
If a CESIR estimate arrives this month, keep the estimate, the scope, and the date. The order’s later comparison of estimates to actuals only helps you if you can show what you were quoted. Screenshot the portal. Save the PDF. Do not rely on a salesperson’s memory of a phone call.
Study-clock language is already in the SIR. The new annual filing is a report, not a hotline. If a CESIR is late, use the existing SIR extension and dispute steps. Do not tell a customer the August 17 order “forces PTO in 100 days.” Permission to operate, also called PTO (PPO or permit to operate in some offices), still waits on construction, inspection, metering, and the utility’s written authorization.
Permit package vs SIR package
New York City DOB, a Long Island town, and an upstate AHJ do not implement 24-E-0621. They still want a permit set. The SIR one-line and the DOB drawing are allowed to share a model. They are not the same stamp. See the NY-Sun installer guide for incentive context and NY SIR vs PA Chapter 75 if you also run Pennsylvania crews.
City pages for the drawing side: New York City, Long Island, Albany. Use permit design and PE stamping when the AHJ or the utility asks for a New York PE. Use interconnection for the PowerClerk packet.
If construction drifted from the approved layout, file as-builts before you ask why the verification test failed. Statewide design: New York solar design services.
What Athol is changing on NY jobs
- Large-DG proposals get an October 1 tariff-watch note, not a made-up new CESIR price.
- We are storing CESIR estimates as dated PDFs so March 2027 matrices have something to compare against.
- Small-DG (≤50 kW) packets stay on the current small-DG checklist unless a utility posts a form change.
- Queue-management rules from the January 23 order stay in the construction calendar. The August 17 order does not replace them.
More on the blog. Sources: NY DPS Distributed Generation Information, New York PSC Order on Interconnection Costs and Study Timelines, Cases 24-E-0621 and 24-E-0415 (issued and effective August 17, 2026).