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Concord light board gives staff flexibility to waive battery requirement for large solar projects, favoring automated curtailment
Summary
The Concord light board directed staff to adopt a more flexible approach to the utility's rule that installations over 50 kilowatts must include batteries, allowing curtailment devices or case-by-case review instead of an automatic battery requirement.
Concord Municipal Light Plant board members signaled support at their April meeting for loosening a 50-kilowatt threshold in the utility's net metering policy that has required batteries for larger behind-the-meter solar installations.
Jason (CMLP director) described the current policy as an operational requirement put in place to limit solar "pushback" into the distribution system and to avoid negative loading at the substation. He said the requirement has discouraged some potential large installations. "One of the findings of the solar task force…was to explore alternatives to the battery requirement," Jason said, noting curtailment — an inverter-level device that prevents exported solar from flowing back onto the feeder — as the chief alternative.
Staff said curtailment devices would automatically prevent reverse flow by limiting solar output to a customer’s own onsite consumption; they emphasized this is an automated control at or before the meter rather than a manual switch. "It's just looking for electricity going, you know, hitting a certain voltage. And when it does, it... sends a message to the inverter and says, turn off some or all of your solar," Jason explained.
Board members expressed concerns about treating residential and commercial customers the same. One member said the 50 kW threshold "seems a bit arbitrary" and recommended exempting typical residential systems by setting a higher threshold so homeowners are not deterred. Another suggested curtailment installations include wiring or provisions that allow adding a battery later. Counsel has reviewed the concept, Jason said, and staff will develop internal procedures to apply the flexibility consistently.
Board members agreed, without a formal roll-call vote, to give staff discretion to review large solar projects on a case-by-case basis and to pursue curtailment where appropriate so projects that lack funds for batteries can proceed.
Jason also noted that SCADA deployment and improved metering are expected to give staff more visibility into feeder-level solar production in the coming year; until that visibility exists, curtailment is the preferred lower-cost option to permit some large arrays to proceed without mandatory batteries.
No formal policy change was adopted at the meeting; the board provided direction to staff to draft procedures and bring back recommended language for the net-metering policy and implementation protocols.
