Utility Drive reports that Sunnova Energy International is pushing back against Southern California Edison and other utilities that want the California Public Utilities Commission to dismiss the company’s proposal to build and own microgrids in new residential communities.
Sunnova argues that its application meets the CPUC’s requirements for a hearing on the proposal to create micro-utility microgrids in new master-planned residential communities.
Under Sunnova’s proposal for new communities of up to 2,000 homes, each house would have rooftop solar and battery storage and would be part of a community microgrid that would include a community-scale photovoltaic system, energy storage and emergency generation.
“Sunnova’s proposal offers a simple, cost-effective way to integrate distributed energy resources into housing through microgrids that would have CPUC oversight”
Arguments by California’s investor-owned utilities are largely unsupported by precedent, rest on “sky is falling” conjecture and are self-serving, Sunnova argues.
SCE contends Sunnova aims to duplicate the utility’s service without adequate oversight.
The Public Advocates Office at the CPUC on Oct. 17 asked the agency to dismiss the application so it can finish setting up rules for microgrids under a process started in 2020 as directed by a state law known as S.B. 1339.
The proposal’s opponents are trying to thwart that law, which requires the CPUC to remove barriers to microgrid commercialization, according to Sunnova.
“Required commercialization of microgrids does not mean leaving microgrid ownership and operation as the sole province of the large IOUs, who will not commercialize microgrids, but instead will monopolize them to the detriment of customers,” Sunnova said.
Moving on the application could help Sunnova take advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act’s new 30% tax credit for microgrid controllers in microgrids built before Jan. 1, 2025, the company said.
More than a dozen organizations have said the CPUC should hold a hearing on the microgrid proposal so the agency can fully consider its merits, Sunnova said.
Those groups are: 50 Bay Area, California Energy Justice Alliance, California Energy Storage Association, California Solar & Storage Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Clean Coalition, Local Government Sustainable Energy Coalition, Microgrid Resources Coalition, Peninsula Clean Energy Authority, Reclaim Our Power: Utility Justice Campaign, Solar Energy Industries Association, Sonoma Clean Power Authority, The Climate Center, Vote Solar, World Business Academy and Zero Net Energy Alliance.
The Center for Biological Diversity and four other groups said in a joint filing the proposal is “groundbreaking” and should be given full consideration by the CPUC.
Sunnova’s proposal for microgrids in new housing would help address California’s goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions while electrifying the housing and transportation sectors, according to Robert Perry, a consultant for World Business Academy, a think tank focused on environmental and other issues.
Read the full story in Utility Drive.