A group of solar and storage industry members called the Storage and Clean Energy Coalition has filed testimony in opposition to the possible merging of utilities Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy.
“There is no doubt that the proposed merger poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in Virginia,” the testimony states. “For this reason, the SCEC opposes the merger as filed.”
SCEC is concerned that the merger could affect the proliferation of renewable energy sources in Virginia, citing concerns around energy competition in the state. The group also wrote that these utilities are “entirely silent on competition in the procurement of generation resources, competition in the form of distributed energy resources, or competition to provide non-wire alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure investment.”
“Dominion and NextEra told regulators this merger won’t affect competition. That’s not true for a Virginia family trying to bring down their bills by generating and storing their own electricity at home,” said Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director, Permit Power, a member of the SCEC. “Dominion and NextEra maintain policies that make it time-consuming and expensive to connect home solar and batteries to the grid. The commission should mandate interconnection reform as a condition of the merger, including requirements to automate the interconnection process and to authorize the use of meter socket adapters that reduce the cost of home solar and batteries.”
The SCEC claims that long interconnection queues at both utilities would worsen if the two were to merge. The coalition is asking for the utilities to implement interconnection automation tools for residential and small commercial projects, and to permit meter sockets, which can prevent main service panel upgrades, to quicken this process.
“There are numerous examples of NextEra exercising its political influence to extract concessions or implement policies that favor it over competition,” SCEC’s testimony reads. “One of the most infamous examples is NextEra’s role through its Florida Power & Light Company utility to influence legislation that would have substantially reduced rooftop solar compensation for residential customers at a time when a very small percentage of households had rooftop solar.”
News item from Permit Power
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