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STREAMLINED INTERCONNECTION FOR SOLAR PV

December 4, 2012 | Webinar

Evergreen State Solar Partnership

During the Webinar:

For technical assistance, call

206-625-1300

To ask questions, expand the

“Questions” section of the webinar

toolbar, type in your question, and click “Send.”

After the Webinar:

Materials at http://nwseed.org/ESSP.asp

Email to: rooftop@commerce.wa.gov

Welcome & Introductions

Interconnection Best Practices – Process!

Seattle City Light Action Plan

Snohomish PUD Action Plan

Puget Sound Energy Action Plan

Q&A

Linda Irvine Northwest SEED

Leslie Moynihan Snohomish PUD

Jake Wade Puget Sound Energy

Tim Stearns WA Dept of Commerce

Jack Brautigam Seattle City Light

DOE SunShot Goal: make solar cost-competitive with conventional electricity by 2020

ESSP received a 1-year grant, 22 projects across the country

Focus on “soft costs” – permitting and interconnection

Solar = Simpler,

faster, more cost effective

Commerce

NWSEED

Solar WA

Sustainable

Connections

Edmonds/Snohomish PUD

Seattle/Municipal Utility Ellensburg/Municipal Utility

Bellevue/Puget Sound Energy

An update to the Washington Utility and Transportation Commission Interconnection Rule is out for comment through 12/21/2012

http://www.utc.wa.gov/docs/Pages/InterconnectionRulemaking.aspx

Questions about this rulemaking UE 112133 Al Wright awright@utc.wa.gov or (360) 664-1209

Report on Distributed Generation UL110667 http://www.utc.wa.gov/docs/Pages/DocketLookup.aspx?Fil ingID=110667

EZ Interconnection Application

IC, NM, PM

Incentive Certification?

Electrical permit?

Online submittal

Single point of contact

Streamlined inspections

Within each utility

Standard Application

- same terms

- same form

Standard 1-line diagram

Standard Process – for customer

Across all utilities

Utility-Specific Cover Sheet

Standard Application & 1 Line - Electrical permit - interconnection

Utility-Specific Agreements – “Legalese”

Combine production incentive certification with application?

Allow installers to inspect on behalf of utility?

Minimal screens for inverter-based systems 10 - 25 kW?

Standard equipment – training – procedures

For more ideas, read the ESSP Interconnection Report

http://tinyurl.com/esspintercon

650 PV installations in the SCL Service Area:

Customer demand is driving process

improvements

Interconnection Standards – 4 Levels <20 MW

Level 1

<100 kW

inverters only

No application fee

1 page application

5 page agreement (includes net and production metering)

6 technical screens (3 days to review completeness; 7 days to approve for screens)

Site inspection

Billing meter - swapped for net meter

Production meter – verify location

Production meter installation

Application for Service/$62 fee

5 day installation goal

Multiple and duplicative applications (electrical, interconnection, production meter, DOR certification)

No online application submittal

Communication with customer or installer or both? (welcome/approval letter could be sent to both)

Production metering (especially larger services); deployment of smart meters

Increasing need for improved customer installation tracking and system mapping

ACTION PLAN

Near Term

Long Term

• Enhance communication to customer and installer (points of contact, on-bill, email, online)

• Improve coordination (SCL, DPD, SPU Call Center)

• Reduce timelines to process interconnections, production meters, WA incentives

• Adopt standard “EZ” IC application and 1-line diagram

• Implement online application submittal

• Combine applications for IC, PM, electrical, DOR?

• Develop and implement new customer data management system to include generator data

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Jack Brautigam, Seattle City Light:

jack.brautigam@seattle.gov

206-684-3954

Seattle City Light website:

www.seattle.gov/light/Conserve/cgen/

Thank you!

Evergreen State Solar Partnership: Interconnection Webinar

Leslie Moynihan, Customer Renewables Program Manager

December 4, 2012

WHO ARE OUR CUSTOMERS?

WHY RENEWABLE POWER?

PUD Commitment

I-937 requirements

Mutually Beneficial

Right Thing to

Do!

HOW IS CUSTOMER RE AT SNOPUD UNIQUE?

Solar Express:

Cash Incentive or Loan

PUD counts the kWh savings.

WA State Production Incentives applied to customer’s account as earned.

SOLAR EXPRESS RESULTS: 2009-2012

Num

ber

of P

roje

cts

Cum

ula

tive I

nsta

lled C

apacity (

kW

)

APPLICATION PROCESSING: NET METERING

Application Received

Application Verified and

Entered in SAP PM Review

System Protection

Review

PM Issues Permission to

Construct

Notice of Completion

Customer Engineering

Review Meters Installed

Accounting sets up production

incentive

BEST PRACTICES

• Documents easy to find: snopud.com/solarexpress

• Communication through single point: solarexpress@snopud.com, 425-783-1700

• Trade Ally network creates easy-to-reach audience, consistency.

• A/C Disconnect not required for systems < 10 kW.

• WA State Production Incentives applied to customer’s account as earned.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT

• Many touches internally adds time ― 7-10 days from receipt of application to Approval to

Construct

― 7-10 days from Notice of Completion to meters installed.

• Getting consistent information on applications will help everyone — Providing sample one-line diagram

— Standardizing application with other utilities

— Ongoing updates to trade allies, website, etc.

Thanks!

Leslie Moynihan

Program Manager,

Customer Renewables

lgmoynihan@snopud.com

425-783-8289

More than 1 million

electric customers

More than 750,000

natural gas customers

6,000+ square mile

service area across 11

counties

2,800 employees

140 employees in

energy efficiency

Jake Wade

Net Metering Program Manager

2

7

12

18

23

41

54

109

219

334 5

40

793

1062

1392

Solar PV

1337 Systems

7069 kW Total

Wind Turbine

37 Systems

109 kW Total

Micro-Hydro

5 Systems

21 kW Total

Hybrid: Solar & Wind

13 Systems

91 kW Total

PSE Total (13 Nov 2012): 1392 Systems, 7.29 MW Total Nameplate Capacity

Forms

Schematics

Contacts

Process

Checklists

Meter Installation

Billing

CMS / Databases

Questions?

Jake Wade

jake.wade@pse.com

425-462-3459

New “EZ”Form

New Billing System

Online Application

QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?

Please take our survey!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/esspintercon

Send additional comments to: rooftop@commerce.wa.gov