On October 2nd, the PUC held its first workshop in its net metering rulemaking case focusing on the potential impacts of distributed solar on Vermont’s transmission infrastructure.
VELCO presented the solar PV hosting capacity analysis it conducted as part of its 2024 Long Range Transmission Plan. VELCO stated:
- that there are no current constraints on the transmission system and that the conditions under which constraints could occur in the future were unusual and likely to be mitigated by market forces.
- the study was conducted independently of a load growth analysis, and looking at these in isolation overstates the degree of transmission investments that would be required for both.
Non-transmission alternatives analysis conducted by the VSPC in the past year determined that no immediate transmission investments are required for either load growth or continued DG solar deployment.
Green Mountain Power provided several pieces of information that contradicted the notion of unnecessary increased costs from future deployment of distributed solar including:
- That in “red” areas of its solar capacity map, projects are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and small projects are still being interconnected. GMP stated that while there was a threshold at which it would no longer be possible to attach new capacity, it made clear that we have not hit that point and it has not identified concerns with the projects that are being interconnected.
- For larger solar projects, many constraints could be managed by curtailment agreements and the costs to ratepayers were “pretty minuscule.”
Despite this testimony from VELCO and Green Mountain Power, Vermont’s Public Service Department continues to advance an unsubstantiated “tragedy of the commons” narrative around solar net metering projects by raising concerns that, in aggregate, net metering projects fail to cover their collective impact on the transmission system. This narrative could be used to support additional fees or other constraints on the net metering program.
However, REV believes that both VELCO’s presentation and the information provided by Green Mountain Power supported REV’s position that the cost impacts of additional distributed solar are minimal and easily manageable.
This workshop was the first in “a series” of information sessions providing background on the benefits and challenges of net metering. REV excepts the date of the next workshop to be announced in the next several weeks.