The Storage and Clean Energy Coalition (SCEC), a group of solar and storage industry members, has filed testimony opposing the proposed merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, arguing the combination would harm competition in Virginia.
The testimony states there is no doubt the transaction poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in the state, and that the coalition opposes the merger as filed. SCEC raised concerns that the deal could affect the spread of renewable energy in Virginia, and said the utilities are silent on competition in the procurement of generation resources, in competition from distributed energy resources, and in non-wire alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure investment.
Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director at Permit Power, an SCEC member, said the companies' assurance to regulators that the merger would not affect competition does not hold for Virginia households trying to lower their bills by generating and storing their own electricity. She said utility policies make connecting home solar and batteries to the grid time-consuming and expensive, and called on the commission to mandate interconnection reform as a condition of the merger, including automated interconnection processing and authorization of meter socket adapters that reduce the cost of home solar and battery systems.
SCEC also said long interconnection queues at both utilities would worsen if the two were to merge. The coalition is asking the utilities to implement interconnection automation tools for residential and small commercial projects and to permit meter sockets, which can prevent main service panel upgrades, to speed the process.
The testimony further points to NextEra's political influence, citing its Florida Power & Light utility's role 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.