How Dominion Energy Killed A Rooftop Solar Plan In Fairfax County, Virginia

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Four years in the past, Fairfax County, Virginia, opened an bold program that can carry photo voltaic techniques to the roofs of many faculties, neighborhood facilities, and parks within the county. Those techniques will probably be paid for over time by way of reductions within the amount of cash the county pays to Dominion, the utility firm that serves most of Virginia, together with Fairfax County. Those rooftop photo voltaic installations are anticipated to generate as much as 45 megawatts of emission-free electrical energy and save Fairfax County taxpayers $60 million over their anticipated 25-year helpful life.

At the time the plan was unveiled, Jeff McKay was about to change into chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. He informed the Washington Post the county desires to power the dialog on photo voltaic power as a part of a broader aim to be extra aggressive about local weather change associated initiatives. “My idea about these environmental issues is, we’re an enormous county; we higher go in large and set an instance,” he stated. Furthermore, “the estimated $60 million in financial savings shouldn’t be insignificant. There is nothing flawed with doing this. “

Fairfax County officers say they’re inspired by agreements with different jurisdictions and environmental activists. The inclusion of almost 90 colleges within the initiative within the county is due largely to a gaggle of scholar activists – particularly these at James Madison High School in Vienna who’re lobbying for photo voltaic power throughout the a number of years.

How Torpedo Rooftop Solar

But the plan did not sit nicely with Dominion, which, like many massive investor-owned utilities, has an curiosity in promoting as a lot electrical energy as doable — and limiting the power of others to faucet into its territory. It argued that plans like this is able to unfairly increase utility charges for others, particularly low-income residents, as a result of the $60 million in county financial savings must be made anyway, probably by elevating charges for residential subscribers.

The plan continued, nonetheless, till the Dominion discovered a solution to impose its will on the method in 2022. That’s when a plot to close down the method got here up. How is it executed? By all of a sudden demanding additional charges to attach rooftop photo voltaic tasks like Fairfax County’s to the grid. Across Virginia, the corporate started requiring upgrades for a “direct journey switch,” a tool that robotically disconnects a system from the grid, on some tasks. Doing so requires putting in a darkish fiber optic transmission line to a substation at a value of $150,000 to $250,000 per mile, and in some circumstances including a relay panel costing $250,000 for tasks that exceed 250 kilowatts. The requirement raises the price of tasks like Fairfax County’s by 20 to 40 %.

“This is a singular requirement in Dominion for a system of this dimension,” John Morrill, director of the Fairfax County Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination, informed the Washington Post. “Wouldn’t some inexpensive expertise be acceptable?” Dominion says the upgrades are crucial for grid reliability and security to forestall arc flashes, wildfires, or accidents to line staff. Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesman, stated the upgrades had been initiated in response to a 600 % improve in midsize tasks following the 2020 passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which inspires small rooftop photo voltaic by third events. He added that Dominion makes use of greater voltage strains than different utilities, which makes it harder to determine faults with out a direct switch journey.

Removing A Roof Solar Legislative Agenda

For you, light reader, that utility firm is attempting to finish up working across the state legislature? Solar advocates level out that such third-party tasks compete with Dominion Energy Solutions’ enterprise subsidiary. DES says on its web site, “Let’s Power a Green Energy Future. Take management of your power use with cleaner, smarter energy from an skilled workforce you’ll be able to belief. Are we to imagine that the requirement for direct transit utilities wouldn’t apply if Fairfax County and different Virginia authorities entities selected to do enterprise with Dominion Energy Solutions as an alternative of impartial third-party rooftop photo voltaic builders? That is a query for readers to resolve for themselves.

Advocates of rooftop photo voltaic in Virginia say Dominion’s necessities have put a cease to a dozen small and midsize photo voltaic tasks throughout the state — particularly in deprived neighborhoods and colleges that promote rooftop photo voltaic. for monetary advantages and to advertise their clear power objectives. Students in colleges actually get a lesson on how issues work in the true world.

“We went from a worst-case situation of interconnection charges of round $20,000 — and that is a unprecedented, worst-case situation — till we began with half one million and went from there. They actually shut down the midsize photo voltaic,” stated Alden Cleanthes of Norfolk Solar, which makes a speciality of rooftop photo voltaic in low-income communities. After launching in 2019, his firm did greater than $2 million in enterprise, together with putting in two historic Black church buildings, a neighborhood middle, and a family-owned roofing firm. In 2023, these tasks should not accomplished.

Others have comparable tales. Prince William County Public Schools has halted plans to put in a rooftop photo voltaic system at Freedom High School resulting from interconnection fees of greater than $1 million. Henrico County suspended a 668 kilowatt photo voltaic array on the James River Detention Center after Dominion stated interconnection prices could be $2.25 million or extra.

An Appeal to Sanity

Since Dominion initiated adjustments to its interconnection insurance policies, the corporate and photo voltaic advocates have turned to the State Corporations Commission, which regulates Virginia’s utility trade, to resolve whether or not the legally crucial, affordable, or crucial. Weighing filings from either side, the fee final 12 months eliminated the parameters, then months later reinstated lots of the authentic necessities on an interim foundation. There was no deadline for a last determination, a lot to the dismay of photo voltaic advocates.

They argue that cheaper alternate options required by different states are efficient. They level to states the place photo voltaic is stronger, resembling New York, Massachusetts, and Hawaii, which have moved to inexpensive options as a result of fiber optic cable is an older expertise. “There are trade greatest practices that we are able to actually leverage and apply inside Virginia,” stated Shay Banton, regulatory program engineer and power justice coverage advocate for the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, who has labored on grid integration since 2017. .Dominion described these cheaper alternate options as “unproven expertise” in fee filings.

The Takeaway

The elephant within the room right here is politics. Dominion is likely one of the most politically highly effective utility firms in America however management of the state legislature has swung forwards and backwards between Republicans and Democrats in recent times. The governor is a staunch Republican and naturally he controls who serves on the State Corporations Board. If you assume it is all about grid administration, assume once more. It’s identical to the Dominion swinging for the fences when it thinks it has the higher hand.

This is a travesty, in fact, for rooftop photo voltaic advocates. Instead of bringing clear, renewable power to native communities, there’s a lack of progress past neighborhood management of renewable power. Dominion is emblematic of the various massive investor-owned utility firms in America which can be extra involved with controlling the movement of electrical energy inside their designated service space and fewer with doing what’s greatest for the neighborhood. That’s what occurs once you put traders answerable for neighborhood sources. How Virginia resolves this battle is anybody’s guess however if you happen to’re hoping the state’s residents who need extra reasonably than much less renewable power will win out, now we have this recommendation. Don’t maintain your breath.