The Storage and Clean Energy Coalition (SCEC), a group whose members come from the solar and storage industry, has filed testimony opposing the possible merging of utilities Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, arguing the combination would damage competition in Virginia and could constrain the spread of renewable generation there.
In its filing, the coalition stated there is “no doubt” that the proposed merger poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in Virginia, and concluded: “For this reason, the SCEC opposes the merger as filed.”
Competition concerns in Virginia
SCEC said it is concerned the merger could affect the proliferation of renewable energy sources in Virginia, citing worries about energy competition in the state. The group wrote that the utilities are “entirely silent on competition in the procurement of generation resources, competition in the form of distributed energy resources, or competition to provide non-wire alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure investment.”
Interconnection reform sought as a merger condition
Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director at Permit Power, an SCEC member, disputed the companies’ account of the deal’s competitive effects. “Dominion and NextEra told regulators this merger won’t affect competition,” Hallock said. “That’s not true for a Virginia family trying to bring down their bills by generating and storing their own electricity at home.”
Hallock said the two utilities maintain policies that make it time-consuming and expensive to connect home solar and batteries to the grid. She urged the commission to mandate interconnection reform as a condition of the merger, including requirements to automate the interconnection process and to authorize the use of meter socket adapters, which the coalition says reduce the cost of home solar and battery systems.
SCEC also claims that long interconnection queues at both utilities would worsen if the two were to combine. 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, as a way to speed that process.
Florida precedent cited
The testimony argues there are numerous examples of NextEra exercising its political influence to extract concessions or implement policies that favor it over competition. It singles out NextEra’s role, through its Florida Power & Light Company utility, 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.
The coalition’s requests center on how distributed resources connect to the grid, an issue it frames as central to competition from customer-sited solar and storage rather than on the wider terms of the transaction.