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4 years in the past, Fairfax County, Virginia, unveiled an ambitions program that may carry rooftop photo voltaic methods to many faculties, group facilities, and park buildings within the county. These methods can be paid for over time by reductions within the amount of cash the county paid to Dominion, the utility firm that providers a lot of Virginia, together with Fairfax County. These rooftop photo voltaic installations had been anticipated to generate as much as 45 megawatts of emissions-free electrical energy and save the taxpayers of Fairfax County $60 million over their anticipated 25 yr helpful life.
On the time the plan was unveiled, Jeff McKay was about to turn out to be the chair of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. He instructed the Washington Submit the county wished to drive the dialog on photo voltaic power as a part of a broader aim to be extra aggressive about local weather change associated initiatives. “My theory on these environmental things is, we’re a big county; we’d better go in big and set an example,” he mentioned. Additionally, “the estimate of $60 million in savings is not insignificant. There’s no downside to doing this at all.”
Fairfax County officers say they had been impressed by agreements in different jurisdictions and by environmental activists. The inclusion of almost 90 colleges within the county’s initiative was due in massive measure to a gaggle of scholar activists — particularly these at James Madison Excessive Faculty in Vienna who had lobbied for photo voltaic power for a number of years.
How To Torpedo Rooftop Photo voltaic
However the plan didn’t sit effectively with Dominion, which, like many massive investor-owned utilities, has a vested curiosity in promoting as a lot electrical energy at potential — and limiting the power of others to horn in on its territory. It argues that plans like this unfairly increase utility charges for others, particularly low-income residents, as a result of the $60 million the county saves must be made up someway, almost definitely by elevating charges for residential subscribers.
The plan moved ahead, nonetheless, till Dominion discovered a option to impose its will on the method in 2022. That’s when it got here up with a scheme to close the method down. How did it try this? By immediately demanding exorbitant charges to attach rooftop photo voltaic tasks like these in Fairfax County to the grid. All throughout Virginia, the corporate started requiring upgrades for a “direct transfer trip,” a tool which routinely disconnects a system from the grid, on some tasks. Doing so requires laying a darkish fiber optic transmission line to a substation at a price of $150,000 to $250,000 per mile, and in some circumstances including a relay panel that prices $250,000 for tasks exceeding 250 kilowatts. The requirement raised the prices of tasks like these in Fairfax County by 20 to 40 %.
“This is a unique requirement by Dominion for this size system,” John Morrill, director of the Fairfax County Workplace of Environmental and Vitality Coordination, instructed the Washington Submit. “Wouldn’t some other technology that’s less expensive be suitable?” Dominion says the upgrades are obligatory for grid reliability and security to forestall arc flashes, wildfires, or accidents to line staff. Aaron Ruby, a Dominion spokesman, mentioned the upgrades had been instituted in response to a 600 % improve in midsize tasks after the 2020 passage of the Virginia Clear Financial system Act, which inspires small-scale rooftop photo voltaic by third events. He added that Dominion makes use of increased voltage strains than different utilities, making it more durable to detect faults with out direct switch journey.
Undoing A Rooftop Photo voltaic Legislative Agenda
Does it appear to you, light reader, that the utility firm is trying an finish run across the state legislature? Photo voltaic advocates level out that such third celebration tasks compete with the corporate’s Dominion Vitality Options enterprise subsidiary. DES says on its web site, “Let’s Power a Green Energy Future. Take control of your energy usage with cleaner, smarter power from an experienced team you can trust.” Are we to imagine that the requirement for direct switch journey units wouldn’t apply if Fairfax County and different authorities entities in Virginia selected to do enterprise with Dominion Vitality Options as a substitute of unbiased third celebration rooftop photo voltaic builders? That’s a query for readers to determine for themselves.
Proponents of rooftop photo voltaic in Virginia say Dominion’s necessities have halted dozens of small and midsize photo voltaic tasks all through the state — notably, in socially weak neighborhoods in addition to within the colleges that championed rooftop photo voltaic for his or her monetary advantages and to advertise their clear power objectives. The scholars at these colleges are actually getting a lesson in how issues work in the actual world.
“We went from a worst case scenario of interconnection fees being about $20,000 — and that was a rare, worst case scenario — to we’re starting out at half a million and going up from there. They’ve literally shut down midsize solar,” mentioned Alden Cleanthes of Norfolk Photo voltaic, which focuses on rooftop photo voltaic in low-income communities. After launching in 2019, her firm did greater than $2 million in enterprise, together with installations on two traditionally Black church buildings, a group middle, and a household owned roofing firm. In 2023, it accomplished no tasks.
Others have comparable tales. Prince William County Public Faculties held off on a plan to put in a rooftop photo voltaic system at Freedom Excessive Faculty due to an interconnection cost of greater than $1 million. Henrico County suspended a 668 kilowatt photo voltaic array on the James River Detention Middle after Dominion mentioned interconnection prices can be $2.25 million or extra.
An Enchantment To Sanity
Since Dominion instituted the modifications to its interconnection insurance policies, the corporate and photo voltaic proponents have turned to the State Companies Fee, which regulates the utility trade in Virginia, to determine whether or not the necessities are authorized, justified, or obligatory. Weighing filings from each side, the fee final yr eliminated the parameters, then months later reimposed lots of the unique necessities on an interim foundation. There is no such thing as a deadline for a last resolution, which photo voltaic proponents discover particularly irritating.
They argue that cheaper alternate options required by different states have been efficient. They level to states the place photo voltaic is extra strong, comparable to New York, Massachusetts, and Hawaii, which have moved to inexpensive options as a result of fiber optic cable is an outdated expertise. “There are industry best practices that we can really leverage and deploy within Virginia,” mentioned Shay Banton, regulatory program engineer and power justice coverage advocate for the Interstate Renewable Vitality Council (IREC) who has labored on grid integration since 2017. Dominion describes these cheaper alternate options as “unproven technology” in fee filings.
The Takeaway
The elephant within the room right here is politics. Dominion is among the most politically highly effective utility corporations in America, however management of the state legislature has bounced 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 Companies Board. For those who thought this was all about managing the grid, suppose once more. It’s simply as a lot about Dominion swinging for the fences when it thinks it has the higher hand.
It is a travesty, after all, for rooftop photo voltaic advocates. As a substitute of bringing clear, renewable power to native communities, there was a scarcity of ahead progress on group management of renewable power. Dominion is emblematic of many massive investor-owned utility corporations in America which might be way more involved with controlling the stream of electrical energy inside their designated service space and fewer with doing what’s finest for the group. That’s what occurs if you put buyers answerable for group sources. How Virginia will resolve this battle is anybody’s guess, however in case you are holding out hope the residents of the state who need extra slightly than much less renewable power will win, now we have this recommendation: Don’t maintain your breath.
