Jason Harchick, P.E. is the Director of Transmission Planning and Interconnection at Oriden, a solar and battery storage developer managing active projects in PJM’s TC1 and TC2 clusters. His role covers every step of the interconnection process—from application to Generation Interconnection Agreement (GIA)—and Nira’s In-Queue tool plays a central role in keeping those projects on track.

“When we are thinking about projects in queue, we are looking at our project impacts as well as others in the whole queue situation, so that we can be more informed at each decision point.”

Before Nira, Jason worked with in-house tools and large spreadsheets—a common pain point across the development community.

“Some developers will spend days working massive complicated spreadsheets—I have done some of that as well, but Nira is a huge time save in that regard.”

Nira’s ability to stay updated with ISO changes is especially valuable in dynamic situations like PJM’s TC2 cycle.

“PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) is  adding 51 new generators in TC2, so we will be able to see a before and after comparison of how the RRI generators are directly impacting our projects using In-Queue.”

Jason also emphasized the importance of usability and flexibility—being able to explore scenarios independently, export data, and dig deeper when needed.

“Nira helps with the consolidation of complex information in an easily digestible way… you can export data, and as an engineer who likes spreadsheets, I like that I can use this to further evaluate the data.”

As Oriden continues to build out its interconnection team, Nira remains a key tool for saving time, navigating queue shifts, and giving engineers the flexibility to move faster with better insight.