This article discusses how Dominion Energy did not include solar and storage in their resource plan. By excluding storage from its resource plan, the Virginia utility also excluded solar + storage, proposing up to 3.2 GW of gas-fired peaking units instead. Separately, a solar association and the utility agreed that modeling should use a solar capacity factor higher than the 23% value specified by regulators.
Even when a utility uses one of the best resource planning models available, executives can still short-circuit the model’s capabilities.
In the case of Dominion Virginia Energy, the utility’s high-end PLEXOS model can readily determine how much solar, storage and wind power would save customers the most money. But Dominion excluded storage when it ran the model, contending that storage is “more costly” than other options in testimony elicited by the Sierra Club, through legal discovery.
This article discusses energy freedom and solar’s strategy for the South. The solar industry has just won a major victory with the passage of the Energy Freedom Act in South Carolina. But is this victory replicable in other Southern states? Two days ago when the bill passed the Senate we covered the details of the policy, but today we’re going to take a look at the politics of getting the Energy Freedom Act passed, and what this means for other Southern states and “red” states.