fullarchive.blogg.se

There has been "industry­wide exasperation" with Xcel on connecting to the grid, David Shaffer, the trade group's executive director, told the PUC Thursday.Īll Energy's barrage of complaints dented Xcel's 2019 "quality of service plan," an annual regulatory report that chronicles customer beefs with everything from outages to bills. In December 2019, All Energy Solar, one of the state's larger solar developers, filed 128 PUC complaints against Xcel on behalf of individual customers, accusing the utility of "systemic failure."Īt least one other developer filed a complaint, and the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association has said in regulatory filings that many more developers have had similar problems. The interconnection problems have been with community solar gardens - which number over 300 - and other smaller projects. Minnesota has three main types of solar power: large projects contracted directly with big utilities smaller "community solar gardens" created by independent developers and even smaller individual residential and commercial arrays, often on rooftops. The debate stems from a 2019 standard that Xcel, the solar industry and clean-energy groups all hoped would improve the state's interconnection process. Commissioners John Tuma and Valerie Means voted against the penalty, saying the PUC should wait to see if Xcel improves before fining it. "The penalty happens automatically," said PUC Chairwoman Katie Sieben, who voted along with commissioners Matt Schuerger and Joe Sullivan to implement the fine now. The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) unanimously disagreed with Xcel's assertion but split on whether to immediately hit Xcel with the $1 million fine. But it argues that the big batch of complaints should be rolled into one. Minneapolis-based Xcel, the state's largest electric utility, has acknowledged shortcomings. A solar trade group said All Energy's grievances reflect longstanding and costly interconnection problems with Xcel for the entire industry.

Minnesota utility regulators Thursday slapped Xcel Energy with a rare $1 million fine for a bevy of complaints over delays in connecting solar projects to the electricity grid.Īlmost all of the roughly 120 complaints were filed by St.