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Correction: Connecticut’s Innovative Energy Solutions Program is working with the consulting firm Strategen. An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the program and firm. Also, the participating company Kraken is not affiliated with the similarly named cryptocurrency company.
Connecticut regulators have approved the first round of pilot projects in a new program aimed at accelerating innovation across the electric grid.
Seven tech companies have received the go-ahead to partner with utilities Eversource or United Illuminating to test the potential of their hardware or software to help decarbonize the state’s electric grid.
The Innovative Energy Solutions Program is part of a broader effort by the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to modernize the grid. It encourages utilities to embrace new technology while limiting the risk to ratepayers.
The selected companies were winnowed from an initial 50 applications. While some of the technologies have been deployed successfully elsewhere, none have been tested in Connecticut, said Julia Dumaine, PURA’s supervisor of strategy and operations. The projects, funded at a total of just under $10 million, were chosen after a multi-step review process that included scrutiny from a nine-member advisory council.
“Having these increasingly stringent reviews minimizes ratepayer risk,” Dumaine said. “These are technologies that have demonstrated the potential to provide real ratepayer and grid-level benefits.”
None are startups in the research and development phase — they are all prepared to scale up at a later date, she said.
After the pilots launch, each company has a set of metrics they must meet and will be required to report on them quarterly, said Eli Asher, a senior manager at Strategen, the consulting firm responsible for developing and administering the program.
“We will be gathering data on how effective the projects are,” he said. “At the end of the deployment period, we’ll have a cost-benefit analysis to inform the recommendations as to whether they should be fully deployed at scale across the state.”
The program allows the utilities to recover their costs for testing these new technologies, something they might be reluctant to do otherwise.
“I think it’s great to have regulators backing a program like this,” said Alex Ghanem, commercial manager for Piclo, one of the companies participating. “It’s a risk to test things out and it costs the utilities resources to do so. I think this is a great framework.”
Based in London, England, Piclo will work with United Illuminating to launch a grid flexibility market. They will recruit owners, operators and managers of any type of distributed energy resource — battery storage, electric vehicles, and other types of dispatchable power sources commonly known as DERs — to operate in an independent marketplace in return for compensation.
Piclo will work with DER aggregators on their platform. They will provide United Illuminating with local flexible DERs that represent alternative — and ideally, cheaper — places to buy energy than on the wholesale market when the utility has insufficient supply to meet customer demand.
Piclo is already operating in New York in partnership with National Grid.
“The penetration of DERs is disrupting the grid and the utilities need to pull on multiple different levers to manage that,” said John Bayard, Piclo’s chief commercial officer. “Grid flexibility marketplaces are one of the tools they can use.”
Another British company, Kraken, will also work with United Illuminating to help them better manage DERs.
Kraken’s platform “can connect to any kind of DER — electric vehicles, heat pumps, smart thermostats,” said Devrim Celal, chief executive officer. “We can connect to them in an effective way, monitor them in real time and control what they do.”
This pilot will focus on customers that use heat pumps and drive electric vehicles. The company will recruit ratepayers to sign up to use their mobile app, which will give Kraken access to their DERs. For example, they might tell the company what kind of EV and charger they have, and what time of day they need to have their car charged by.
“We will determine when is the best time to charge their cars to achieve low-carbon emission targets, and in exchange we’ll give them a reward,” Celal said.
The pilot is intended to help the grid run greener and more cheaply.
An EV charging software company called AmpUp will work with Eversource to try to balance electricity demand during peak periods by decreasing load at electric vehicle chargers. Based in Santa Clara, Calif., AmpUp will provide incentives to compensate charging station owners for decreasing charging during peak periods.
They are still working out what level of incentive might stimulate participation, as well as whether it might appeal to a workplace with four chargers as much as to a company operating a fleet of vehicles, said Matt Bloom, director of partnerships.
“We’re really excited,” he said. “It’s good to see the regulators take a little risk. This is a good way to innovate, see what we learn and whether it’s something Eversource could adopt long term.”
In his quest for a net-zero emissions house, Tim Leroux has already achieved gold status. But he’s not content to rest on those energy-efficiency laurels.
The Albemarle County homeowner is itching to reach platinum. And he believes a heat pump upgrade will eventually punch that ticket.
For guidance, the healthcare risk manager will turn to a free online calculator recently unveiled by Charlottesville-based Pearl Certification to help homeowners nationwide navigate the maze of tax credits and point-of-sale rebates for cleaner appliances covered by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Pearl built its niche reputation awarding green seals of approval to customers such as Leroux seeking higher-performing homes.
Leroux, who says he is “evangelical about energy efficiency,” is bullish on the company’s offerings, which range from certifying contractors to training real estate agents.
It ties into Pearl’s dual mission of decarbonizing the nation’s housing stock and maximizing the return homeowners receive on their energy-efficient upgrades. The whole idea is to encourage people to take stock of the hidden — and thus often ignored — infrastructure that keeps their home ticking.
“It can be flat-out confusing for the uninitiated,” he said, adding that eligibility requirements and potential savings offered by the IRA adds another layer of complexity. “It’s hard to sell a solution for a problem people think they don’t have.”
Residential energy use accounts for about 20% of this country’s greenhouse gas emissions.
That figure prompted Cynthia Adams to launch Pearl Certification in 2015. Adams, who grew up in Northern Virginia’s Prince William County, was no rookie to energy efficiency.
Adams entered the technical field in the late 1990s while leading a sustainable design/build company and then a green building consulting firm. In 2008, she had a hand in originating a climate action plan for the Charlottesville region.
Within two years, she had helped write the grant that funded what became the Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP), where she began serving as executive director in 2010. The nonprofit provides energy efficiency and solar solutions for homes and businesses in the Charlottesville region and Northern Virginia.
Adams co-founded Pearl because she yearned to move the needle on residential energy efficiency as painlessly as possible. Her goal is for homeowners to earn points and advance their green ranking while plotting a strategic plan toward living in a healthier house with a lower carbon footprint, reduced utility bills and a higher appraisal value.
“We’re very much a human organization, not a bunch of techies,” said Adams, now based in Durango, Colo. “And that personal touch is how we get a national movement going.
“That, and never tell a woman she can’t do something. It’s a surefire way to get her to do it.”
Jennifer Amann, a senior fellow with the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s buildings program, watched Pearl come into existence during her lengthy career in the industry.
“Cynthia and her co-founder, Robin LeBaron, were asking how they could create a steady demand for high quality, efficient services to improve buildings, address climate change and make homes healthier,” said Amann, based in Washington, D.C.
For the most part, energy efficiency updates at the residential level tend to lurch along unevenly, dependent on the vagaries of the U.S. Congress and how much money the federal government attached to assorted rebates and credits.
That “super, super challenging” up-and-down pattern led the two entrepreneurs to form a network of local, reliable contractors with high-level expertise revolving around appliances, insulation, drainage, heating and ventilating, and every other aspect of energy efficiency, Amann said. Pearl vets and accredits each contractor.
Contractors pay fees to belong to the network, which is how Pearl earns its money.
“That is not at all an unusual model,” Amann said. “It’s valuable for contractors to invest because they know they can get better leads and relationships, and return business. Customers benefit because they have access to somebody who can help them through a confusing process and not be stuck with just a guy and a truck.”
Home performance is a complex market, she said. Most homeowners don’t upgrade all at once and part of Pearl’s appeal is that homeowners can easily track their progress toward peak efficiency.
Homeowners can contact their own contractors, use any number of free IRA calculators now available and do their own homework with their state energy office to cash in on credits and rebates, Amann noted.
“But there’s peace of mind in working with somebody who can walk through all the steps with you,” she said. “I mean, energy efficiency is my world and I don’t want to do all of that myself.”
IRA-related tax credits of up to 30% on the cost of electric vehicles, home energy audits, electric appliances, solar panels and other projects became available nationwide last year.
However, rebate programs remain stuck in the bureaucratic process because state energy offices are tasked with crafting and operating their own initiatives.
A few states might roll out programs later this year, but Virginia won’t be among them. Bettina Bergöö, associate director of energy efficiency and financing at the Virginia Energy Department, confirmed that the state’s rebate program likely won’t debut until the first few months of 2025, at the earliest.
When available, the IRA-funded rebate programs will be split into two components. One, the home efficiency rebate, is based on measurable energy savings achieved so it does not specify any required retrofits or technologies.
The other, the home electrification and appliance rebate, is technology specific. Upgrades that qualify include heat pumps for space heating and cooling, heat pump water heaters, heat pump clothes dryers, electric stoves, cooktops, ranges or ovens, electric wiring, and insulation, air sealing and ventilation.
Virginia has been allocated a total of $189 million to fund the rebates, according to Virginia Energy. That total is split about evenly between the two rebate programs.
The federal government has set eligibility parameters for the rebates, which states are allowed to expand or contract as they see fit. For instance, states could choose to set income limits to steer the benefits toward poorer households.
“These decisions are to be made by each state based on their respective needs and program objectives,” Bergöö said, adding that such a review is still underway in Virginia.
Pearl will be updating its calculator as Virginia and other states release their rebate parameters.
In the meantime, Leroux and other efficiency aficionados can tap into Green Door, an application Pearl invented in 2020 that offers customized, step-by-step plans toward reducing reliance on fossil fuels to power their homes.
It links users with Pearl’s contractors and allows them to earn points verifying the efficiency ranking of their home. An “asset” rating means a home has at least one high-performing feature. From there, enrollees can graduate to silver, gold and platinum levels.
“I liken it to airline or hotel loyalty points,” Leroux said about Green Door. “It tells you exactly where you’re at and what you need to do to reach the next level. I’m working toward platinum because I think it’s super cool.”
To vault from silver to gold over the last several years, he earned Pearl points for modernizing his lighting and switching to a tankless water heater and a more efficient refrigerator. He achieved “gold with solar” status last year after installing a 9.72-kilowatt rooftop array.
“A lot of this stuff is a little hard to get excited about because it isn’t as sexy” as his 27 solar panels, he said, adding that he gets an adrenaline boost when he plugs his data into the application and “I see the needle go way up.”
As intuitive as the online application is, Leroux recommends property owners reach out to a nonprofit weatherization organization or a contractor for an energy audit.
“After that, you can use Green Door to build out a plan,” Leroux said. “It lays out the incentives, connects you with contractors and shows you how you can get the biggest bang for your buck.”
Leroux, a retired U.S. Army officer, bought his Charlottesville area house in 2020, realized what a bargain he had escaped with when, post-purchase, he found paperwork confirming it was Pearl-certified with a silver rating.
“It wasn’t marketed that way,” Leroux said. “When I called a friend in real estate, he told me I should have paid $20,000 more than I did because of that certification.”
That friend was Greg Slater, a Charlottesville broker and Realtor. The two knew each other through LEAP. During Adams’ tenure there, Leroux had served as director of operations and Slater was on the nonprofit’s board of directors.
Slater, in business for 27 years, schooled himself early on about the intricacies of energy efficiency improvements and how they can add value to a home’s sale price.
Now, as a member of the Pearl network, he pays for a certification report on each house he markets so he can pitch the benefits of energy efficiency to potential buyers. The reports that accompany home listings cover details of the building shell, heating and cooling, baseload electricity use and management of future upgrades.
“You don’t have to become a building-science expert, but you have to figure out a way to get comfortable with this information,” said Slater, who earned green credentials a decade ago from training via the National Association of Realtors. “The average realtor is intimidated and afraid to have that conversation.”
Buyers are savvy about sizing up curb appeal and the value of visible assets such as type of countertops and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, he emphasized.
“But they won’t pay for the features they’re not aware of,” he continued, “and that includes heat pumps, tankless water heaters, air sealing, solar and other upgrades they likely won’t notice or care about unless somebody takes the time to educate them.”
Pearl certification can add about 5% to the sale price of a Charlottesville-area house, Slater said. He pointed to a study completed in 2021 by an independent appraiser.
That premium is enticing to Leroux, though he has no immediate plans to put his home, built in 2012, on the market.
“For me, the real proof is when I go to sell this house,” he said.
Barring an emergency breakdown of his current heat pump, Leroux will track what type of replacement might be possible next year when Virginia publicizes its IRA-related rebate specifics. He suspects his income might be too high for him to qualify.
If that’s the case, he will pursue a different route to update his mechanical system, and seek out other nips and tucks to fine tune his home.
“This house already produces more energy than it uses,” he said. “Once you’ve tackled everything on the Green Door roadmap, you start running out of updates. But I’m a believer in living a net-zero life.”
SOLAR: As solar installations lag in Massachusetts, advocates urge the state to re-examine its incentive program, which they say has not adapted to economic changes. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIFICATION:
OFFSHORE WIND:
UTILITIES:
GRID: A Long Island town is welcoming energy storage development despite some local opposition, a contrast to other towns that have passed moratoriums on the project. (Newsday)
GEOTHERMAL: As a Rochester, New York, industrial building is converted to housing, it will be heated and cooled by a $1.9 million geothermal system, in a project that developers say could be a model for others in the region. (WXXI News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Google-backed company unveils what are believed to be the fastest public EV chargers in the U.S. in New York City, promising to add 200 miles of range in five minutes. (Reuters)
MINING: Experts say massive lithium projects in California and elsewhere won’t necessarily negate the need for mining in Maine. (Maine Monitor)
COMMENTARY: A Maine business leader says two recent utility accountability bills are duplicative, and indicate a need for a more deliberative approach on energy policy. (Bangor Daily News)
SOLAR: A New Hampshire legislative proposal would streamline the interconnection process for solar projects, which right now varies depending on the utility for projects larger than 100 kW. (Energy News Network)
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
POLICY: Maryland’s legislature quickly approaches its deadline to advance legislation to the next chamber, but several energy bills — including one to restrict what homeowner associations can do about a home’s solar or electric vehicle installation plans — have already done so. (RTO Insider, subscription)
STORMS:
TRANSIT:
OFFSHORE WIND: Northeast fishers have about three months to apply for compensation if their business was impacted by Vineyard Wind construction, with much of the money earmarked for Massachusetts workers. (CAI)
EDUCATION: A high school-aged youth coalition pushes New Hampshire legislators to incorporate climate and environmental education in school curricula. (In-Depth NH)
SOLAR: California regulators side with utilities and propose rejecting a community solar-friendly tariff policy pushed by advocates, lawmakers and pro-solar groups, potentially killing efforts to revamp the state’s community solar market. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
UTILITIES: An Oregon jury orders PacifiCorp to pay more than $42 million to victims of the 2020 Labor Day fires blamed on the utility’s equipment. (Associated Press)
HYDROGEN: Xcel Energy pauses a plan to blend hydrogen with natural gas in its distribution system following opposition from residents and advocates. (CPR)
MINING:
DIVESTMENT: Oregon lawmakers pass a bill that would divest the state’s public employee retirement fund from nearly $1 billion in coal-related investments. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
COAL: A company plans to demolish Alaska’s only coal loading facility, likely permanently ending the state’s coal export industry. (KTOO)
POLITICS: Wyoming’s senate passes language that would strip an agency of funding that has gone toward Gov. Mark Gordon’s “all of the above” energy strategy. (Wyoming Public Radio)
CLIMATE: The Biden administration awards $38 million to Oregon for resilience measures that can better protect residents from climate change-exacerbated wildfires. (KOIN)
GEOTHERMAL: Hawaii launches a statewide search for potential geothermal energy sources using federal COVID relief funds. (KHON)
GRID:
NUCLEAR: California advocates urge federal regulators to order Diablo Canyon nuclear plant to close immediately due to the “unacceptable risk” of a seismically induced accident. (Tribune)
HYDROPOWER: Data show Northwest hydroelectricity facilities generated less power in 2023 than in the last 20 years due to low winter snow levels. (KUOW)
TRANSPORTATION:
COMMENTARY: A Colorado advocate urges state lawmakers to fashion policies aimed at accelerating residential building electrification. (Colorado Newsline)
GRID: The Midcontinent Independent System Operator proposes a second round of transmission upgrades across the Midwest costing as much as $23 billion, but advocates question whether the plan sufficiently anticipates future clean energy needs. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: A North Dakota utility says a massive new cryptocurrency data center is straining a power line, which has cost it $18 million in demand charges, much of which gets passed on to customers. (Bismarck Tribune)
CARBON CAPTURE:
NATURAL GAS:
POLLUTION: Multiple Midwest states join a lawsuit challenging a new EPA rule tightening standards for particulate pollution. (Associated Press)
SOLAR:
BIOENERGY:
TRANSPORTATION: Rapid City, South Dakota’s city council passes a resolution in support of a proposed passenger rail expansion that would connect the city to Sioux Falls and Denver. (Rapid City Journal)
COMMENTARY: A Kansas advocate says the state’s lack of a comprehensive energy plan has made this year’s legislative debate feel “a lot like a dysfunctional road trip.” (Kansas Reflector)
NUCLEAR: Connecticut legislators mull studying the possibility of adding new nuclear capacity at the Millstone Station plant. (New Haven Register)
BUILDINGS: Providence’s city council passes a new ordinance requiring municipal buildings reach carbon neutrality by 2040. (Providence Journal)
SOLAR:
CLEAN POWER: New York City finds it feasible to develop solar and battery storage at Rikers Island, an infamous prison slated for closure, as well as install offshore wind power transmission equipment. (The City)
POLICY: A hearing on New York’s new emissions reduction scoping plan sees supporters and detractors argue for and against accelerated climate action. (Auburn Citizen)
TRANSIT: Some Maryland lawmakers want to block the possibility of funding a high-speed train between New York City and Washington, D.C., although the legislation is stalled in committee. (Capital News Service)
FOSSIL FUELS:
GRID: Connecticut legislators hear testimony on a proposal to study the impact of large data centers on the state’s power grid, but supporters of such facilities say studies will just delay development. (CT Mirror)
GEOTHERMAL:
UTILITIES: Iberdrola, a Spanish energy major with a majority stake in Avangrid, wants to buy out the remaining shares in the Connecticut-based utility. (Hartford Business Journal)
CLIMATE: President Biden highlights his climate policies in his State of the Union address, tying Inflation Reduction Act incentives to a wave of clean energy manufacturing projects and jobs. (E&E News)
ALSO: Two new analyses conclude this winter’s record-breaking warmth was driven by climate change, which combined with an El Niño weather pattern made the season unrecognizable in parts of the world. (New York Times)
OIL & GAS:
GRID: Advocates say grid-enhancing technologies can help squeeze more capacity out of existing U.S. transmission lines and reduce bottlenecks as more clean energy comes online. (States Newsroom)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy acknowledges its power poles likely sparked the largest wildfire in Texas history, though denies it was negligent in maintaining its facilities. (Texas Tribune)
SOLAR: New York City finds it feasible to develop solar and battery storage at Rikers Island, an infamous prison slated for closure, as well as install offshore wind power transmission equipment. (The City)
STORAGE: Advocates say Hawaiian Electric’s plan to slash residential battery program incentives could imperil the state’s energy transition and lead to more power outages. (Grist)
TRANSPORTATION: The founder of an electric bike-sharing company is determined to make the operation successful in Youngstown, Ohio, by scaling appropriately and focusing on community needs. (Energy News Network)
BIOFUELS: Advocates say a California program allowing dairies to sell carbon credits for producing biofuels from manure incentivizes factory farming and its environmental impacts. (Sierra)
COMMENTARY: A California columnist considers the pros and cons of public power agencies after Warren Buffett questions the financial viability of investor-owned utilities in the West. (Los Angeles Times)
Climate and clean energy advocates weighing in on CenterPoint Energy’s ideas to decarbonize its natural gas business in Minnesota applaud the effort but say it falls short of what’s needed to meet the moment.
The state’s largest gas utility submitted an “innovation plan” last summer to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, which is taking public comments on the plan through March 15. Over the course of hundreds of pages, the utility proposes 18 pilot projects — from tree planting and geothermal to carbon capture and hydrogen blending.
Altogether, the utility is asking to spend more than $105 million on 18 pilot projects that it estimates will reduce the equivalent of around 330,000 metric tons of carbon emissions over the five year plan, which would represent about a 4% reduction, according to calculations by clean energy organizations.
The plan “is going to move us, but it’s not going to move as fast enough,” said Melissa Partin, climate policy analyst with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, one of several groups that have submitted comments on the plan.
The docket (M-23/215) stems from the Natural Gas Innovation Act, a 2021 state law that, among other things, authorizes gas utilities to collect money from ratepayers for projects aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Xcel Energy submitted a similar plan to state regulators late last year for its natural gas utility.
Gas utilities are expected to make up a growing share of the state’s climate pollution as the state’s electric utilities transition to 100% clean power by 2040. Two out of every three households heats their home with natural gas, and many industries rely on the fuel to operate medium and heavy machinery — a potentially daunting challenge as the state seeks net-zero climate emissions by 2050.
The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and other advocates have asked the Public Utilities Commission to supplement the pilot project spending with emission-reduction targets for the utilities.
While many of CenterPoint’s ideas look promising and some could eventually scale up to make a bigger impact, Partin said the Natural Gas Innovation Act will not alone drive the state across the finish line for its climate goals.
Other strategies will be needed, such as updating commercial and residential building codes, improving energy efficiency standards for appliances, and considering a ban on allowing any natural gas in new buildings, which, Partin said, “will be difficult in Minnesota’s current political climate.”
Utilities are somewhat hamstrung by the act’s requirement that half the budget for the initial plans must go to alternative fuels, which “stacks the deck” in favor of renewable natural gas and hydrogen, Partin said.
CenterPoint is already blending hydrogen into its system from a downtown Minneapolis facility, and so proposing additional such projects does not seem to fit the definition of “innovation,” Partin said. Meanwhile, a recent study by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research found little to no climate benefit from blending hydrogen in existing gas supply lines, in part because hydrogen is less energy dense and more prone to leaking.
Joe Dammel, managing director of buildings for Fresh Energy, said CenterPoint’s plan “is definitely not a silver bullet; it’s not going to get us where we need to get.”
Energy News Network is an independent journalism service of Fresh Energy.
While praising the utility for its yearlong stakeholder process and for proposing new resources and changes to its business model, the plan shows that CenterPoint will not contribute “their fair share of the emissions reductions needed based on this,” Dammel said.
CenterPoint’s pilots for weatherization and retrofitting homes look promising, he said, but ideas for purchasing carbon offsets, selling gas-powered heat pumps and injecting hydrogen into the existing gas system have little chance of success.
CenterPoint’s proposal to create green hydrogen, produced from renewable energy, and blending it into the gas distribution system is not “scalable” and has limitations. Commercial gas heat pumps “are not a very viable technology,” Dammel said. Instead, the utility should focus on applying hydrogen technology to decarbonize industrial end users.
Dammel added that to reach the state’s 2050 carbon neutrality goal CenterPoint’s first plan would have to increase its emissions reduction six-fold, from 4% to 27%.
Audrey Partridge, policy director for the Center for Energy and Environment, said the pilot programs will lead to better data and a greater understanding of the potential energy sources and their carbon emissions.
“I’ve heard people describe it as throwing spaghetti at the wall,” Partridge said. “But we need to come up with all the possible solutions and pursue them on a small scale to see which ones are going to stick. These aren’t necessarily mature ideas, as you would see in other areas of energy. They’re very, very new.”
The pilots that could yield important advances include using heat pumps for large loads and electrification of low and medium heat processes in the industrial sector, she said. Residential deep energy retrofits and geothermal technologies will likely reduce natural gas consumption.
“We do hope that CenterPoint and Xcel get approval to move forward on these plans so that we can start to learn from them,” Partridge said.
The docket could begin a new path for CenterPoint, which only sells gas. The Minneapolis Deputy Commissioner of Sustainability, Healthy Homes and Environment, Patrick Hanlon, said CenterPoint’s plan allows the utility to provide “heat as a service,” a crucial distinction that gives room for innovations the city supports, including ground source networked geothermal systems, district energy and other approaches.
“Heat as a service allows CenterPoint to move away from natural gas and move towards some alternative, more climate-friendly sources of heat,” Hanlon said. The city also wants to ensure that residents are “not burdened” with the cost of the innovative pilots or switching to a different level of service, he said.
The attorney general’s office, which represents ratepayers, suggested the cost for some pilots outweighed the carbon benefits while suggesting the commission modify or deny sections of the plan.
“Portions of CenterPoint’s plan are not yet ready for primetime: several of the proposals lack necessary partners, and many lack sufficient detail to establish their prudence,” the office wrote. “Other proposed projects are unlikely to achieve the greenhouse gas savings CenterPoint suggests and unlikely to justify the astronomical cost to ratepayers.”
The attorney general and clean energy groups also raised concerns about CenterPoint’s request to exceed pilot budgets by as much as 25% without statutory approval. Clean energy groups also seek modifications to CenterPoint’s plan to recover the cost of projects.
The Public Utilities Commission is expected to hold hearings later this year before deciding on the plans for both utilities.
When conveyor belt manufacturer Wire Belt opened its new facility in Bedford, N.H., last fall, the company looked forward to saving money and fighting climate change with a 2,400-panel solar array installed on the roof.
Four months later, however, Wire Belt’s solar panels lie dormant as the company waits for its utility to hook the project up to the grid. It’s an example of the often long and unpredictable interconnection delays facing large solar projects in New Hampshire and nationwide.
Wire Belt president Jon Greer was among those who testified at a January hearing in support of state legislation that aims to streamline this connection process, a proposal that is receiving broad support from climate advocates and the business community, including companies like Wire Belt, whose monthly power bills approach $60,000.
Sen. Kevin Avard, chairman of the Senate energy and natural resources committee, who introduced the bill, said it’s time to fix the system.
“We just want to make sure that the people who took advantage of solar have the opportunity to utilize the good clean energy, hopefully at a lower price,” Avard said.
Currently, utilities determine their own process for approving interconnection requests for projects larger than 100 kilowatts. The bill calls for the New Hampshire Department of Energy to draft and assess rules that would create a uniform policy for all utilities to use, with the goal of making the process smoother and more predictable.
“Right now there are no guardrails, no timelines, there’s no real obligation to hurry,” said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Clean Energy New Hampshire. “This is where, if you’re a regulated monopoly, regulators are supposed to step in.”
Wire Belt is not the only business feeling discouraged. Russ Greenlaw, senior vice president of sales for the Associated Grocers of New England, explained at the hearing that the delays make it difficult for members to commit to spending money on solar developments when it is so unclear when they would be able to see benefits to their bottom line.
“There’s just a complete lack of clarity and predictability around the process,” said Heidi Kroll, director of government relations for New Hampshire law firm Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell.
Interconnection issues are not limited to New Hampshire. Though each state has its own approach, the basics are the same: New renewable energy projects that want to hook up to the grid have to submit interconnection requests to the utility. The utility evaluates the project and its impact on the grid, then decides whether any upgrades are necessary to accommodate the new power source before approving it for connection.
Residential arrays and other small projects are often approved quickly: Eversource, which serves 71% of New Hampshire’s households, expects to receive as many as 5,000 interconnection requests this year and to approve 95% of them within days.
However, in New Hampshire and many other states, the surge in larger renewable energy developments has created logjams in this process as utilities try to figure out how much the grid can bear and how to accommodate additional power — how to balance the benefits of renewable energy supply with the strain the new generators put on the grid.
“Interconnection is one of the biggest barriers right now to getting clean energy done,” Evans-Brown said.
And most states do not yet have systems in place that are keeping up with these challenges. Freeing the Grid, a nonprofit initiative that grades states on their interconnection policies, found that only six states — none in New England — and the District of Columbia scored above a C. New Hampshire was among the 17 states earning a D.
Eversource, New Hampshire’s largest utility, has a queue of just under 100 projects needing further study. Unitil, which serves about 10% of the state’s customers, has four larger projects in the waiting line — three since the fall and one since late spring — representing the significant majority of the pending load.
New Hampshire has taken early steps to address its interconnection problem. In July 2022, the legislature asked the state to investigate and make recommendations. The resulting report, released in December 2023, concluded that there are indeed “considerable technical, operating, processing, and procedural challenges,” to adding growing amounts of renewable energy to the grid.
The report called for the creation of two working groups — one focused on technical and engineering problems and solutions, and another for administrative and process issues — to further assess the situation and provide solutions.
For many stakeholders, however, this proposed approach is not nearly robust enough, prompting a bipartisan group of legislators to back the current bill.
The original bill would have required the state to begin a rulemaking process within 45 days and adopt final rules by the end of 2024. This timeline, however, would not have been possible within the department’s rulemaking process, said Joshua Elliott, director of the energy department’s division of policy and programs. The legislation was then amended to call for “a proceeding to examine and assess draft rules to be adopted” rather than a final rulemaking.
“The bill as introduced was not implementable,” Elliott said. “As amended, the bill both gives the department the resources to accomplish this task and a timeline that is implementable.”
Some advocates, however, aren’t convinced that the amended bill has enough specificity and force to make the needed difference.
“It is not explicitly clear that a rulemaking is required, and it doesn’t give any deadline,” Evans-Brown said. “It was a valuable hearing — that’s a big step — but I am very skeptical that the [department] is taking this problem seriously.”
The Senate’s energy and natural resources committee voted unanimously in mid-February to recommend passage of the amended bill, and legislators are eager to see it passed and hopefully help ease a longstanding problem.
“What’s the pause, what’s the hiccup?” Avard said. “It’s nothing complicated.”
Editor’s note: The headline on this article was updated to clarify that interconnection delays are only affecting projects over 100 kW.
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