The Storage and Clean Energy Coalition, a group of solar and storage industry members, has filed testimony opposing the proposed merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy. “There is no doubt that the proposed merger poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in Virginia,” the testimony states.
In the filing, the group said it opposes the merger “as filed.” It warned that the deal could affect the growth of renewable energy in the state and argued that the utilities do not address competitive effects in several areas. According to the testimony, the companies are silent on competition in the procurement of generation resources, competition from distributed energy resources, and competition to provide alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure investment.
SCEC’s testimony also argues that the merger review should account for competition in how electricity is generated and delivered, not only for the direct combination of the two utilities. The group contends that the applicants have not explained how the merger would preserve competitive pressure from distributed resources or from alternatives to conventional utility infrastructure.
Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director at Permit Power and a member of the coalition, disputed the utilities’ position that the merger would not affect competition. She said the issue matters to a Virginia family trying to lower its bills by generating and storing electricity at home. According to Hallock, Dominion and NextEra maintain policies that make connecting home solar and batteries to the grid time-consuming and expensive.
The coalition is asking the commission to make interconnection reform a condition of the merger. Its requested conditions include automated interconnection processing and authorization for meter socket adapters, which the group says can reduce the cost of home solar and battery installations.
SCEC also claims that long interconnection queues at both utilities would worsen if the companies merged. It wants the utilities to adopt automation tools for residential and small commercial projects and to allow meter socket adapters, which can avoid the need for main service panel upgrades, to speed the process.
The testimony further alleges that NextEra has used political influence to obtain concessions or advance policies that favor it over competitors. As one example, SCEC points to NextEra’s Florida Power & Light utility and its role in influencing legislation that would have substantially reduced rooftop solar compensation for residential customers when only a small share of households had rooftop solar.
The coalition asks regulators to attach the interconnection changes to any approval and opposes the merger as filed.