Push is on to open power grid to intermittent solar and wind projects
TOM JOHNSON, ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT WRITER | MARCH 7, 2024 | ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
The problem is clear, the solution anything but. How can utilities open their closed distribution circuits to accommodate new, flexible sources of electricity?
In a bid to fix a growing problem throttling solar development throughout the state, lawmakers are pushing to open the electric grid to absorb significantly more clean-energy projects.
Legislation cleared by a committee earlier this week is modeled after an initiative approved for Atlantic City Electric during its most recent rate case before utility regulators. Much of the utility’s franchise territory in South Jersey is so constrained that most residential solar projects cannot hook into its distribution system.
That chokepoint on connections undermines the state’s ambitious goal to rely on solar power as a key policy to transition to 100% clean electricity within 11 years and dramatically curb emissions contributing to climate change. Interconnections are now emerging as an issue for Jersey Central Power & Light and Public Service Electric & Gas.
Grid goal: reliable and flexible
It also serves to highlight just how daunting a task New Jersey and other states confront in maintaining the reliability of an aging power grid while enabling it to seamlessly integrate intermittent sources of renewable energy, such as solar and wind.
Lawmakers push for more incentives to achieve clean-energy goals
The legislation (S-2816) is just one relatively small effort to modernize the grid, a top priority of Sen. Bob Smith, the chairman of the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and bill sponsor. A more expansive measure will be taken up next Monday when a bill allocating $300 million in state funds to grid modernization is up for a vote.
The less ambitious bill requires the state’s electric utilities to submit infrastructure improvement plans to the Board of Public Utilities detailing how they plan to open up electronic distribution circuits that have been closed to renewable energy projects.
For the most part, the bill envisions utilities using technological fixes to open the circuits, primarily involving how the power flows through the circuits and substations. “Using technology to avoid building new lines should work better,’’ said Brian Lipman, director of the Division of Rate Counsel, who supports the bill, pending amendments.
Unworkable timetable
The Rate Counsel and the utilities agree the suggested time frames outlined in the bill — the plans would be submitted to the BPU 90 days after enactment and approved by the agency within 120 days of enactment — are unworkable.
“It will take a lot longer than what the bill says,’’ said Christina Farrell, vice president of the New Jersey Utilities Association. In written testimony, the association also expressed concern about how the new requirements would interfere with existing infrastructure improvement plans.
Smith (D-Middlesex) ordered Lipman to sit down with the BPU and come up with a timeline more acceptable to utilities and other skeptics. The bill will be amended once a consensus is reached, but Smith made it clear he wants to begin opening up closed circuits sooner rather than later.
‘But we are not moving fast enough. Anything we do to accelerate the process … is a good thing.’ — Sen. Bob Smith (D-Middlesex)
Fred DeSanti, executive director of the New Jersey Solar Energy Coalition and credited by Smith as the source of the bill, said the proposal aims to take incremental steps to upgrade the grid. “It puts people to work fixing the problem, instead of talking about it,’’ he said. “It’s a small bite out of a big apple, which is financially digestible.’’
In Atlantic City Electric’s case, they plan to spend $33 million to open up 60 distribution circuits, which will take four years to complete and impact 103,000 customers, according to DeSanti. Once completed, it will create the potential for new solar applications.
If implemented by the other utilities beyond ACE, grid modernization will not only open up closed circuits for new residential solar systems but also small commercial projects and community solar arrays, according to DeSanti.
The BPU is working on its own grid modernization proposal. “But we are not moving fast enough,’’ Smith said. “Anything we do to accelerate the process … is a good thing.’’