Abstract: Deregulation of the electric utility industry, opened the grid to access by any generation resource. Legislative incentives encouraging the interconnection of renewable energy sources encourage wide spread interest in interconnection. The absence of any coordinated effort to standardize interconnection requirements was recognized in the mid-1990s. With encouragement from the DOE, IEEE formed industry working groups to surface the issues and provide an organized response to the concerns of the utility system operators, equipment suppliers and regulators. IEEE Std 1547 is the resulting standard. It became obvious that additional effort was needed. As a result, additional standards, guides, and recommended practices evolved. This discussion presents the IEEE 1547 family of documents, the issues that formed them and the continuing efforts to keep them current with the changing landscape of the national electric grid.
