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All industries › Glossary › Commercial operation date

Glossary

Commercial operation date

Also: COD, in-service date

The date a power project starts selling power; developers' projected CODs in the queue run late more often than not.

A project's commercial operation date is when it is complete, tested and selling power. Developers report a projected date to the grid operator and to the EIA, and those dates slip often: a projected COD says when the developer hoped to finish, not when work will start.

Working back from a COD gives a rough construction window (a large solar farm takes about a year to build, a wind farm a little less), which is why Groundtrace labels any start worked out that way as an estimate.

Related terms

Interconnection queueThe grid operator's list of power projects asking to connect to the grid, usually the first public trace of a solar, wind or storage site.Mechanical completionThe point where everything is installed and ready for testing, before the plant is energized and starts commercial operation.First ground disturbanceThe first clearing or grading on a site, the moment construction starts on the ground; Groundtrace watches for it from satellite.
Every term Utility solar projects Data center projects

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