Case Study
Sonder Energy is a utility-scale solar and energy storage developer whose team brings experience across energy development. To date, Sonder Energy has over 100 years of combined energy and development experience, and more than 5 GW of solar under development.
We spoke with Development Associates Levi Mellin and Morgan Alderman and GIS Manager Zachary Leighton, whose team works at the very start of Sonder's development lifecycle. They manage utility-scale solar projects in the portfolio, bring land under site control with landowners and legal, and run due diligence across the company.
That puts interconnection risk in front of them before most of it is known. General RTO transmission plans offer a broad view, but not one precise enough to pick a substation. Bespoke injection studies are precise, but too costly and slow to run across every candidate site. Without better data, site selection leans on educated guesses.
Nira's Prospecting data informs Sonder Energy’s team at three key moments in the development workflow.
Where to look. Sonder uses Nira's cost data to select specific transmission lines and substations, giving the siting team concrete targets instead of a broad search area.
Which site is stronger. During landowner conversations and negotiations, the team uses Nira's data to compare candidate sites side by side.
When to walk away. When new models are released and interconnection costs rise or capacity worsens, Nira's data can inform the decision to drop a project.
"The data in Nira's prospecting platform is a key driver for our decisions about where to look for new sites.”
With more visibility into interconnection risk, Sonder approaches new projects with more confidence. Because Nira's analysis is forward-looking, the team expects future buyers to view its projects more favorably than sites chosen by educated guess.
"With a forward-looking analysis provided by Nira, we can have more certainty that future buyers will look more favorably on our projects than if we had just made educated guesses about where to find projects.”
The partnership: a team that closes knowledge gaps
Sonder Energy was one of Nira's earliest customers, and credits the Nira team's platform knowledge and broader industry experience with helping answer complex, nuanced questions about RTO generator interconnection processes.
When SPP launched its new Consolidated Planning Process, Nira's account team walked Sonder through a synthesized version of SPP's new generation interconnection tariff and introduced the Planned Interconnection Location tool Nira built to support it. When technical questions remained, they brought in other Nira team members to fill the gaps.
"Their depth and breadth of knowledge, both in understanding and using the Nira platform and from their broader experience in the renewable energy industry, have helped our team answer complex and nuanced questions."
For Sonder Energy’s development team, that support is part of a longer relationship, one built alongside a platform that keeps evolving.
"Nira's commitment to continued innovation and excellent customer support is invaluable to a company like Sonder. We have worked with Nira from the beginning and greatly value the deep relationship we have built.”
