PNM grid congestion locks thousands of New Mexico residents out of solar

When Dan and Gary Monaghan moved into their expansive West Facet dwelling in September 2020, the brothers deliberate to instantly go photo voltaic.

Gary, who moved from Chicago to affix his brother in Albuquerque, even purchased an electrical automobile in anticipation.

They instantly signed up with Tesla to put in photo voltaic panels on their 3,294-square-foot dwelling, simply north of the petroglyphs, together with a Tesla “Powerwall” battery storage system to increase availability of their self-generated electrical energy across the clock.

And so they purchased a half dozen electrical area heaters as nicely to maintain their four-bedroom, four-bath dwelling heat in winter to cut back pure gasoline consumption.

However a number of months after shifting in, Public Service Firm of New Mexico despatched them a letter saying the utility’s substation electric-feeder line into their neighborhood was “full,” which means neither the Monaghans — nor any of their neighbors within the 138-home group — may join new photo voltaic techniques to the grid.

“The thought from the beginning was to get photo voltaic, so we selected a house in a vivid, sunny neighborhood with a south-facing roof,” Dan instructed the Journal. “It was like a punch within the face once they stated we will’t have photo voltaic.”

The Monaghans’ dwelling is only one amongst hundreds of New Mexico residences and companies that at the moment are locked out of the marketplace for putting in particular person photo voltaic techniques as a result of PNM feeder traces into many native communities are at capability, in accordance with the utility. Meaning, except a enterprise or house owner desires to fully disconnect from the grid — which means totally eradicating the PNM meter to go it on their very own — no one within the congested communities can get photo voltaic.

A complete of 19 communities in PNM’s service territory — nearly all of them conglomerated on the town’s West Facet and in Rio Rancho — at the moment are labeled as “pink zones” the place photo voltaic interconnection is at the moment unavailable, in accordance with PNM. That represents practically 4% of all of the utility’s feeder traces, which interprets to about 4% of PNM’s whole buyer base.

To make sure, that’s nonetheless a reasonably small variety of the roughly 530,000 prospects at the moment served by PNM. And up to now, virtually all properties and companies which have truly utilized for photo voltaic interconnections throughout PNM’s service territory have been accredited for hook ups, stated Omni Warner, director of PNM’s distribution engineering and grid modernization groups.

“Lower than 1% of functions by prospects are on ‘maintain standing,’” Warner instructed the Journal. “For 99% of our prospects who’ve requested an interconnection, we’ve allowed it.”

However 4% of PNM’s whole buyer base equals about 22,000 properties and companies. And whereas the corporate rejection charge is lower than 1% of whole functions, many individuals within the pink zones who do need photo voltaic are apparently simply opting to not apply since they’ll solely be rejected.

Within the Monaghans’ neighborhood, for instance — the place solely two properties managed to get photo voltaic earlier than PNM decided that the native feeder line was at capability — residents have maintained an ongoing dialogue via Fb.

“Via our group Fb group, we’ve had lengthy discussions with many neighbors who’ve tried to get photo voltaic,” Dan stated. “Many simply haven’t utilized as a result of they comprehend it’s not obtainable. There’s an actual sense of dismay.”

Rising downside

The state Public Regulation Fee is now working to resolve, or no less than alleviate, the state of affairs by growing new requirements and rules that might assist PNM and different native utilities to release extra capability on their feeder traces.

Fashionable applied sciences to regulate the back-and-forth movement of present between utilities and particular person photo voltaic techniques may assist develop the quantity of customer-based technology that may safely be built-in on a single line, in accordance with consultants concerned within the PRC course of. As well as, up to date calculations on how a lot photo voltaic can truly be linked earlier than a distribution system is stuffed up may additionally imply extra capability at the moment exists on congested traces than beforehand thought by PNM and different utilities.

However the PRC course of, which started in early 2021, received’t conclude till later this 12 months. And even then, the adoption of latest guidelines and advanced-control applied sciences will take time to implement, most likely years.

As well as, whereas new rules and expertise will assist alleviate the present state of affairs, a complete answer for congested feeder traces requires important upgrades to the grid. And that, in flip, raises questions on who can pay for these investments, which may price tens, if not tons of, of tens of millions of {dollars}.

Within the meantime, the issue will doubtless develop worse, given in the present day’s quickly increasing demand for customer-cited photo voltaic, or “distributed technology,” in New Mexico and elsewhere, stated Jim DesJardins, govt director of the New Mexico Renewable Power Trade Affiliation, which is taking part within the PRC’s new rule-making course of.

“If the brand new guidelines are accredited this 12 months and take impact subsequent January, it’s going to nonetheless take no less than a few years to implement them and alter issues, particularly as a result of that is sort of new territory for everyone,” DesJardins instructed the Journal. “The issue will doubtless worsen earlier than it will get higher.”

Final 12 months alone, grid-interconnection functions to put in particular person rooftop techniques round New Mexico elevated by about 25%, with some 10,000 requests obtained by native utilities, stated Arthur O’Donnell, a veteran trade knowledgeable and U.S. Division of Power Fellow who’s aiding the PRC within the rule-making course of.

PNM alone, which already had practically 26,000 interconnected buyer techniques on its grid by year-end 2020, obtained greater than 6,000 new functions final 12 months.

“We’re seeing extra functions than ever,” O’Donnell instructed the Journal. “We’re particularly seeing giant will increase in small residential rooftop photo voltaic installations.”

Neighborhood photo voltaic

The upcoming addition of “group photo voltaic” initiatives throughout the state may additionally considerably improve the necessity for extra feeder-line interconnection capability.

The State Legislature handed a regulation in 2021 to start permitting third-party builders to construct group photo voltaic installations, whereby giant, central photo voltaic services of as much as 5 megawatts will present photo voltaic technology to utility electrical grids. Houses and companies that wish to take part will pay a price to the builders to turn out to be mission members, entitling them to obtain credit score on their utility payments for his or her portion of the photo voltaic electrical energy provided to the grid.

That permits individuals who hire properties or residences — notably lower-income households who can’t afford a person photo voltaic system — to entry photo voltaic electrical energy. Companies and different institutional shoppers that don’t have the rooftop capability to put in a system may be part of.

The PRC finalized a brand new rule on April 1 to information the state’s adoption of group photo voltaic, which is able to doubtless start after the brand new interconnection guidelines and requirements are accredited.

However developer curiosity already far outweighs capability. The regulation outlined a gradual deployment course of to evaluate how nicely group photo voltaic deployment works in New Mexico, limiting the overall variety of initiatives throughout the state to a cumulative cap of 200 megawatts via year-end 2024. At the moment, the PRC will re-evaluate this system after which set annual caps for brand new initiatives going ahead.

However in 2021, builders sought utility-interconnections for 15 instances extra group photo voltaic than is at the moment allowed, O’Donnell stated.

“The state’s three investor-owned utilities bought like 900 requests for about 2,500 MW of group photo voltaic techniques,” he stated. “Utility engineers are fully overwhelmed.”

Nationwide downside

The problem of congested distribution traces stifling custom-owned photo voltaic deployment just isn’t distinctive to New Mexico. The issue first appeared greater than a decade in the past in Hawaii and California, which lead all different states within the quantity of distributed technology put in on their grids.

However new trade research — plus the event of superior applied sciences to regulate present on feeder traces — helped alleviate congestion in these two states and others. The trade discovered that the standard utility “rule of thumb” for solar-connection capability on any particular person line is extraordinarily conservative, which means much more interconnection is feasible on current traces that have been beforehand closed off to further photo voltaic technology, O’Donnell stated.

Traditionally, utilities restricted the overall quantity of distributed technology on any given feeder line to a most of 15% of all present going backwards and forwards between the utility and native prospects, which means that when the road feeding into a particular group reached the 15% cap, most utilities would routinely stop any new photo voltaic additions in these areas.

However the Interstate Renewable Power Council, or IREC — a nonprofit that advocates for speedy adoption of unpolluted vitality and vitality effectivity expertise — has constructed new requirements for interconnection capability primarily based on intensive analysis, together with detailed research by the DOE’s Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory in Colorado. Below the brand new requirements — now confirmed correct via deployment in Hawaii and elsewhere — most feeder traces are thought-about able to dealing with as much as a 30% most for customer-sited technology, and probably far more in some locations.

As well as, the widespread set up of “sensible inverters,” plus battery storage techniques, can add an enormous quantity of further capability.

Sensible inverters, batteries

Inverters are used on all techniques to transform direct present, or DC, to alternating present, or AC, for rooftop photo voltaic techniques to principally step down the facility depth coming from the solar to ranges that can be utilized to run family home equipment. And, when photo voltaic techniques generate extra electrical energy past what the person buyer can use, the inverters re-convert the present to DC to move it again to utilities over feeder traces for normal consumption on the grid.

Aside from the DC/AC conversion, inverters till not too long ago have been typically additionally programmed to close down a photo voltaic system if there’s an electrical outage on the grid to keep away from issues of safety as utilities work to restore issues and get their electrical techniques again on-line.

However about 5 years in the past, producers upgraded most inverters into “sensible” expertise that may management the extent of voltage being fed into feeder traces, slightly than simply shut techniques down. Meaning if the quantity of voltage being generated by a person system spikes, the sensible inverter can routinely decrease the present ranges fed into feeder traces, or alternatively, they will improve the voltage when too little electrical energy is generated.

The brand new inverters may redirect present into battery storage techniques slightly than feeder traces, permitting prospects to cost up batteries to make use of the electrical energy at nighttime, or to feed that saved electrical energy again to the grid as wanted.

And battery deployment itself can present an enormous enhance for distributed technology typically, straight controlling the quantity of present going backwards and forwards on feeder traces to supply electrical energy particularly when it’s wanted.

However to combine these new applied sciences, plus the upgraded requirements on how a lot distributed technology feeder traces can tolerate earlier than reaching capability, new guidelines and rules should be adopted by states to information utility interconnections. Such regulatory revisions have already been adopted in no less than 4 states. And IREC is now aiding regulators with new rule-making processes in additional than half a dozen different states, together with New Mexico.

Yr-long dialogue

The PRC held workshops and conferences all through 2021 with dozens of native utility representatives, trade consultants, and clear vitality firms and advocates to contemplate adopting the brand new requirements and expertise into New Mexico’s interconnection guidelines, which haven’t been up to date since 2008.

“Over 140 individuals participated within the course of at one level or one other, with 40 individuals no less than attending conferences each different week,” PRC Commissioner Cynthia Corridor instructed the Journal.

That culminated in a draft with proposed modifications to the state’s present interconnection guidelines, which the complete PRC accredited in late March as the muse for a proper rule-making course of that’s now underway to formally undertake an up to date set of rules, Corridor stated.

That course of will think about a broad vary of points, corresponding to IREC’s trendy requirements for calculating feeder-line capability, pointers for integrating sensible inverters and battery storage into utility grids, streamlined processes by utilities to assessment and approve interconnection functions, and dispute decision between utilities and clean-energy builders and prospects when reviewing interconnection requests.

“The method will convey New Mexico’s interconnection rule into the twenty first century, with extra streamlined assessment of smaller techniques and fast-track assessment of bigger ones primarily based on new requirements that may permit utilities to not fear about including extra capability,” O’Donnell stated.

DesJardins stated that’s important as extra householders, companies and clear vitality builders search to put in distributed technology.

“Distribution traces are like a freeway,” DesJardins stated. “We set up photo voltaic on the buyer degree after which we join these techniques to distribution traces, but when the circuit is closed, it’s like a freeway being shut down. That’s an enormous subject that urgently necessitates making the freeway greater, as a result of individuals are solely simply beginning to get on.”

Collaborative, however controversial

The rule-making, nonetheless, just isn’t with out controversy, with many factors of competition between utilities and clean-energy builders and advocates.

Renewable trade representatives are notably gung-ho about new pointers for sensible inverters and battery storage to alleviate congestion on utility distribution techniques, plus adoption of contemporary IREC requirements to control most capability on feeder traces.

“These issues will quickly give us extra capability to put in extra photo voltaic,” DesJardins stated. “The present requirements and necessities are outdated and arbitrary, and so they don’t account for contemporary expertise.”

Taiyoko Sadewic, founder and CEO of Santa Fe-based set up agency Constructive Photo voltaic, stated states like Hawaii and California have confirmed that IREC requirements and sensible inverters work.

“They’re the canaries within the coal mine,” Sadewic instructed the Journal. “They’re displaying us the best way for the long run in New Mexico as grid circuits replenish … As an trade, we’re engaged on native pilot initiatives with sensible inverters to maneuver that expertise ahead right here.”

Utilities are open to exploring these issues, however they’re understandably extra cautious.

An excessive amount of present on feeder traces can injury transformers, conductors and different elements on distribution techniques as a result of the present causes warmth that may result in thermal degradation over time, stated Omni Warner of PNM.

“As a utility, now we have a dedication to serve all prospects with dependable, protected energy,” he stated. “We have now working constraints the place the voltage goes too excessive or low on these traces due to extra photovoltaic technology on the feeders.”

Nonetheless, if sensible inverters could be proven efficient regionally, it may provide some options to at the moment congested communities, Warner added.

“Sensible inverters may assist resolve a few of the at-capacity, closed circuits that we now have,” Warner stated. “They’ll present worth to the general grid, and as a utility, we’re supportive of the idea of sensible inverters.”

PNM additionally believes battery storage can probably present important congestion aid, corresponding to putting batteries close to distribution substations, or on bigger photo voltaic techniques feeding into the grid, to supply centralized management of present in congested communities, Warner stated.

However particular person, customer-owned batteries could also be much less sensible. For one factor, they’re very costly, considerably elevating prices for householders and companies that select to go photo voltaic. As well as, utilities will want extra infrastructure, corresponding to sensible meters put in on properties and companies, to completely monitor how these techniques are working in actual time to adequately handle the grid as extra distributed technology comes on-line.

Price sharing

And hanging over every part are the prices for grid upgrades to put in and handle issues like batteries and different expertise.

“We’d wish to make a few of these enhancements, but it surely’s a matter of when, how and who pays for it,” Warner stated.

If distribution-level investments profit properties and companies that wish to go photo voltaic with out offering any important features for non-solar prospects, then who pays for upgrades turns into a equity subject, stated PNM spokesman Ray Sandoval.

“It’s not truthful for one group to subsidize one other group of consumers,” Sandoval instructed the Journal. “We will’t count on everybody to foot the invoice for a number of, however that’s out of our fingers. It’s a public coverage query on who pays for all of this that the PRC should determine on.”

That’s notably true in congested communities the place, however sensible meters and new IREC requirements on capability, distribution-system investments will nonetheless be crucial. Such upgrades, when merited, can price wherever from $1 million to $10 million, in accordance with PNM.

An intensive assessment of how prices are shared is important within the rule-making course of. That’s as a result of present rules on interconnection name for any particular person house owner, enterprise or developer who requests to attach up distributed technology to the grid in a congested group should now bear all the prices for any upgrades wanted to maneuver ahead.

“Price causation is at the moment triggered by whoever is the final buyer to request an interconnection, and that’s very unfair,” DesJardins stated. “Everybody who follows on with interconnection then will get a free journey as a result of the wanted distribution upgrades have been paid for by only one buyer or enterprise.”

Final 12 months’s dialogue workshops produced quite a lot of potential choices on cost-sharing, corresponding to distributing the price of upgrades amongst all builders and prospects who profit. However no consensus was reached on something particularly.

“We haven’t but zoned in on the way it will look, however we do need some type of cost-sharing included, with a critical dialogue about it within the rule-making,” DesJardins stated.

Different points

Disagreements additionally exist over quite a lot of less-technical points, corresponding to streamlining utility assessment of interconnection functions and necessities for utilities to supply extra public perception into grid infrastructure.

Extra transparency — together with a potential mandate for utilities to supply common studies on grid congestion — may also help clear vitality builders make higher choices on the place to construct photo voltaic initiatives to keep away from issues earlier than they start. However that may doubtless require extra engineers and technicians to conduct detailed system evaluations, elevating utility prices.

And as for streamlining the interconnection course of, clear vitality advocates are in search of strict timelines for utility assessments that may result in nearly instant approvals for small rooftop techniques, and simply weeks, slightly than months, to complete functions for bigger techniques, stated Adam Harper, founder and CEO of Albuquerque-based set up agency OE Photo voltaic.

“Below these new guidelines, utilities would want to course of all functions in beneath 30 days,” Harper instructed the Journal. “As we speak, extra sophisticated initiatives principally get mothballed with no finish dates, and that may come to an finish. If one thing takes longer, the burden could be on the utilities to elucidate why.”

Regardless of particular disagreements, nonetheless, the utilities say they’re dedicated to working with all individuals within the rule-making course of to design a contemporary regulatory framework for interconnection going ahead, stated Anthony Bueno, PNM director of buyer options and operations.

“We’re working collaboratively with clear vitality builders, PRC people and different utilities to provide you with options collectively,” Bueno instructed the Journal. “It’s a very good effort and it must occur to assist utilities and our prospects. We’re absolutely dedicated to it.”

However whereas welcome information for householders and companies situated in at the moment congested communities, no short-term aid is probably going for individuals just like the Monaghan brothers and their neighbors, as a result of it may take years to implement options even after new guidelines are accredited. And within the meantime, lots of these locked out of the photo voltaic market are rising a bit determined.

With federal tax incentives for photo voltaic investments scheduled to ratchet down subsequent 12 months after which disappear in 2025, the Monaghans are afraid they received’t get an interconnection utility accredited by PNM till after the tax breaks are gone, making their photo voltaic aspirations unaffordable.

“That is New Mexico, with sunshine throughout, and but we will’t entry it,” Gary Monaghan instructed the Journal. “We’re trying now at shifting some other place to faucet into renewable vitality, as a result of that’s a giant a part of why we purchased this home within the first place.”

Are you in a pink zone?

Go to www.pnm.com/photo voltaic and click on on Get Began Now with a view to entry Public Service Firm of New Mexico’s Photo voltaic Capability Map, which reveals communities that can’t at the moment join photo voltaic panels to the grid.