Senate committee hears bill to clarify community solar interconnection rules
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Summary
Senate Environment, Energy and Transportation Committee reviewed SB 210, a bipartisan stakeholder-backed bill to allow community solar projects to qualify based on the point of interconnection within a utility's service area. Supporters said the change would free roughly 8————— 10 projects and about 31 MW stalled by a parcel-wide interpretation and help preserve federal tax credits.
State Senator Stephanie Hanson, chair of the Senate Environment, Energy and Transportation Committee, opened a hybrid committee hearing on Jan. 14 to consider Senate Bill 210, a measure her office sponsored to clarify how community solar projects qualify for interconnection and related incentives.
Hanson told the committee the law as currently written has been read to require an entire facility's site to lie within a single utility's service area, a construction that has left several projects unable to connect even when their point of interconnection is inside Delmarva Power's territory. "A few years ago we passed Senate Bill 2, which cleared a lot of the roadblocks," Hanson said. "This bill inserts that a renewable energy generating facility where the point of interconnection is located in the service area of the utility will now be able to be connected."
The change, Hanson and supporters said, is narrowly targeted at the interconnection point rather than parcel boundaries. Matt Hartigan, executive director of the Public Service Commission, told the committee the situation affects roughly 10 projects representing about 31 megawatts of capacity and that the timing of federal investment tax credits adds urgency to resolving the issue. Hartigan said the credits are expected to expire "in the middle of this year," a point stakeholders cited as a reason for swift committee action.
No witnesses at the hearing registered formal opposition. Peggy Schultz of the League of Women Voters of Delaware urged the committee to advance the bill so panels currently sitting idle could be connected. Lisa Oberdorf of Delmarva Power thanked legislators for working with the company and said the bill "will help get those projects moving before the tax credits expire in July so they can get online and start generating for us."
Environmental and industry commenters also backed SB 210. Marissa McClinton of the Sierra Club Delaware Chapter said 24 megawatts are already powering customers and more than 100 megawatts are ready or in development to connect. Trevor Laughlin of Standard Solar said a recent Public Service Commission order imposing a parcel-wide requirement had created technical ineligibility for four late-stage projects and jeopardized deployed capital; he asked the committee to release SB 210 with a favorable recommendation so projects in the pipeline could proceed.
The committee did not take a formal vote on SB 210 during the hearing. Chair Hanson said she would circulate the bill for signatures and indicated a desire to have it placed on the next day's agenda for further action. The meeting then recessed after a voice assent to adjourn.