A group of solar and storage industry members organized as the Storage and Clean Energy Coalition has filed testimony opposing the proposed combination of utilities Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, arguing that the deal would damage competition in Virginia.
The coalition, known as SCEC, wrote that the merger poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in Virginia and said it opposes the transaction as filed.
SCEC wrote that the utilities are entirely silent on competition in the procurement of generation resources, on competition in the form of distributed energy resources, and on competition to provide non-wire alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure investment.
Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director at Permit Power, an SCEC member, disputed the companies' assurances to regulators that the merger would not affect competition. She said that claim does not hold for a Virginia family trying to bring down its bills by generating and storing its own electricity at home, and that Dominion and NextEra maintain policies that make connecting home solar and batteries to the grid time-consuming and expensive.
Hallock asked the commission to 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, which she said reduce the cost of home solar and battery systems.
SCEC said the long interconnection queues at both utilities would worsen if the two merged. The coalition is asking the companies to implement interconnection automation tools for residential and small commercial projects, and to permit meter sockets, which can prevent main service panel upgrades, in order to speed the process.
The testimony also addresses NextEra's political record, citing as one of the most infamous examples its role, through the Florida Power & Light utility, in influencing 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. SCEC said there are numerous examples of NextEra using political influence to extract concessions or implement policies that favor it over competition.