POWER May 2015 - 33

DISTRIBUTED GENERATION & ENERGY STORAGE
Housing Agency-16 high-rise buildings and
2,554 housing units-with a dedicated solar
project. Those developments suggest that solar
gardens may morph into solar malls.
Xcel has pushed back against the size
of community solar projects, Midwest Energy
News reports. The utility expected to
see what occurred in Colorado, with much
smaller projects lined up to supply the utility's
customers. Xcel says such large projects
in Minnesota could add $50 million to
all customers' utility bills if all are approved.
The utility argues that the mega-projects are
counter to the intent of the legislation.
John Farrell of the Washington-based Institute
for Local Self Reliance, said, " Xcel
chose a way to make it look as bad as possible, "
a charge he has leveled against other
utilities facing increasing solar market penetration.
" But I'm not surprised with Xcel
having a problem with the program, because
it has been a roaring success when measured
against that of any other community-based
solar program across the country. It's 20
times bigger than the next biggest program,
in Colorado. "
There is experience with big community
solar projects aimed at varying categories
of customers. Salt River Project (SRP), the
large Phoenix, Ariz., public power system,
has a 20-MW community solar project that
allocates portions of the array to residential
customers, school districts, and commercial
enterprises. According to SRP, the solar farm
consists of more than 66,000 panels spread
across 144 acres, a utility-scale project dedicated
to individual subscribers. SRP is also
looking at smaller community projects in its
service territory, according to sources following
the utility.
Defining " Community "
Not all energy activists are all-in on community
solar, particularly where IOUs and
their regulators control the process. In February,
the California Public Utilities Commission
(CPUC) approved final rules to
implement the state's 2013 law. It applies
to the state's three IOUs (Pacific Gas and
Electric, Southern California Edison, and
San Diego Gas & Electric) but not to the
state's large public power systems, including
the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power and the Sacramento Municipal
Utility District.
Vote Solar's Susannah Churchill, while
praising much of the CPUC's rules, criticized
the " unfair and unaffordable pricing " in the
regulations. Churchill said the regulators " accepted
the utilities' flawed pricing proposal,
which doesn't convey to subscribers the full,
long-term value of the shared renewable generation
on their bills, and also allows the bill
May 2015 | POWER
credits and charges to fluctuate significantly
year to year for a given subscriber. "
In North Carolina, where Duke Energy
has been pushing solar, support of community
power hasn't reached the degree that local
energy and environmental group NC WARN
would like. NC WARN's Nancy LaPlaca told
Utility Dive, " Too many so-called community
solar programs are not true 'community'
solar because they are run through utilities
and only a tiny amount of solar is allowed
each year. " Pace's Rábago has characterized
some of the IOU programs, including Duke's,
as reflecting an " owned by us, controlled by
us, rationed by us " approach.
Unresolved Issues
Some vexing regulatory and jurisdictional
questions arise with community solar, particularly
when offered by for-profit utilities.
IOUs often have to jump through regulatory
hoops at the state level to justify their
investments and the rate of return. SEPA's
Campbell says the regulatory obstacle course
tends to slow IOU development of projects.
State regulators have to grapple with issues
related to how net metering will work with
the projects, what rates of return on investment
are appropriate, and how to apportion
project costs.
Another sticky problem for shared solar,
which experts in the field admit is far from
resolved, is how these projects can exist in
regions where utilities don't own generation,
and where independent generators bid
into competitive wholesale markets run by
regional transmission operators. The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates
these markets, which comprise about
half of the U.S. Some have suggested that
treating community solar transactions as retail
would let them escape FERC oversight,
but figuring out how that might work could
take months or years of litigation at FERC
and in the federal courts.
A New Distributed Generation
Model
Community solar appears to be a viable way
to spread the reach of solar PV power beyond
individual rooftops and utility-scale
projects. It offers renters, those with ill-sited
homes, multi-family dwellings, and commercial
customers ways to take advantage
of solar electricity.
Community solar also offers another
path to the distributed generation paradigm,
which policymakers, regulators, and some,
but far from all, utilities see as a way to
overcome some of the big problems facing
the electricity industry today. Those
problems include the fragile nature of the
transmission and distribution grid, the value
of locating generation near load to reduce
distribution costs, and the movement away
from fossil fuel generation.
Pace Energy Project's Rábago says, " The
time has come to complete the transformation
of the electric utility sector. A deliberate
and sustained effort to establish robust
markets for distributed energy services is the
major remaining step in that process. "
Community solar, broadening the opportunity
for customers to access the power of the
sun, can be a part of that transformation. It is,
says Rábago, " Solar for the rest of us. " ■
-Kennedy Maize is a frequent POWER
contributor.
More Must-Read Stories at powermag.com
Each month, our editors post web-only stories on our site.
Some get included in the weekly POWERnews eletter, but you
can be the first to see new content if you check the What's
New slider when you're online or using a mobile device.
Here's one we don't want anyone to miss: " OSHA's Arc
Flash Final Rule Will Save Lives. " Associate Editor
Sonal Patel interviewed Samy Faried, PE, an ABB regional
business development manager who has been involved in
arc flash hazard analysis and protection for the past 15 years.
He noted that there is a long history of arc flash rules, from
multiple regulators, but " a large fraction of the industry did
not know the rules, or did not take them seriously. " It's time
to get serious, folks!
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