This case study is drawn from a joint presentation by Nira Energy and Doral at ESIG's i2X STITCH Meeting 4: Automation and Data Harmonization (August 18, 2026). The i2X STITCH initiative — facilitated by Berkeley Lab in collaboration with ESIG and Elevate Energy Consulting as part of the DOE's Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange — brings together industry stakeholders to explore interconnection study practices across U.S. regions and identify opportunities for harmonization.

How do you make a multi-million-dollar decision in less than a week?

That's the reality developers face once a project reaches a decision point window in the interconnection queue. As Doral's Shawn Welch (VP, Interconnection & Transmission) explained at ESIG's i2X STITCH webinar, the timeline is tighter than most people realize: while decision point windows are typically framed as a few weeks, the actual runway is often just four or five days once financial approval processes with banks and lending partners are factored in. Every advancing project requires a readiness deposit — capital that, once posted in later phases, is largely non-recoverable if the decision turns out to be wrong.

The Problem

Doral had three project phases totaling more than 670 MW moving through SPP's Decision Point 2 window. Phase 2 study results identified significant network upgrade costs — the kind that would have made all three positions economically unworkable if the projects advanced as originally structured.

The Automation

Rather than accept the phase 2 results as final, Doral's team used Nira's In-Queue tool to model different combinations of the three project phases — testing what happened if they withdrew certain positions, kept others, or adjusted for tariff-allowed withdrawal thresholds. Running these combinations at scale meant the team could see a full range of high- and low-band cost outcomes before committing capital, rather than relying on a single static result.

The analysis identified a scenario where withdrawing two of the three project phases and advancing the third significantly reduced network upgrade costs — enough to bring exposure down to minimal or zero incremental upgrade costs. That gave Doral the confidence to commit the remaining readiness deposit and move forward on the surviving 270 MW position, having withdrawn 400 MW.

The Result

The project advanced, the Generation Interconnection Agreement was executed, and offtake was secured.