July 2010 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter
WHAT’S NEW AS OF JULY 2010? Note from the Editor NREL Forecasted Progress, Policies Followed Suit Remember Y2K? It doesn’t seem that long ago even though more than a decade has passed since clairvoyants everywhere were predicting mass chaos at the turn of the millennium. That same year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published…
WHAT’S NEW AS OF JULY 2010?
Note from the Editor
NREL Forecasted Progress, Policies Followed Suit
Remember Y2K? It doesn’t seem that long ago even though more than a decade has passed since clairvoyants everywhere were predicting mass chaos at the turn of the millennium. That same year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published an in-depth report titled Making Connections: Case Studies of Interconnection Barriers and their Impacts on Distributed Generation Projects, which became an industry standard and continues to be referenced to this day. In a way, these NREL authors were also clairvoyants of a sort but thankfully they were more accurate in their predictions. In the decade since the publication of this report, the renewable energy industry has experienced an explosion of renewable energy technologies that can be likened to other major industrial revolutions in history. Along with this explosion came the policies to put those technologies to work, and it has happened along a similar path suggested by the report. [Continued in newsletter]
State News in Detail
Northeast States
Federal, State laws clash over in-state generation in Massachusetts
Mid-Atlantic States
D.C. PSC Issues final net metering order
Net Metering victory declared in West Virginia
Midwestern States
Indiana municipal utility approves net metering
Iowa Board adopts Small Wind Innovation Zones
Missouri PSC implements RES rules
Southern States
Florida PSC approves changes to TECO Interconnection Agreement; GRU plans to expand solar FIT
Western States
Arizona Commission allows third-party sales to goverments, schools
Colorado offers credit multiplier for co-ops and munis
Idaho Power seeking approval of their first-ever PURPA agreement for solar facility
Nevada opens dockket investigating effects of renewable energy
Wyoming government finds that wind energy is relatively cheap
Other States
Alaska returns to interconnection proceeding; net metering takes effect
IREC News
Join us for a webinar on Net Metering in Retail Choice States
Informal inquiry on indemnification and state agencies
Miscellaneous News
FERC requests information on energy storage
IEEE announces draft standard for DG interconnection
Virginia Students win European Solar Decathalon
Indemnification and State Agencies – informal request for information
Upcoming Events
Download the full newsletter as a PDF: July 2010 Connecting to the Grid Newsletter
FORMAT
While customer-sited net metering and interconnection policies are primarily addressed at the state level, they are also becoming important on a regional basis. This newsletter has been designed to provide state-level policy updates and capture emerging regional trends. Connecting to the Grid is a free, electronic newsletter published each month by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, Inc. (IREC) and the North Carolina Solar Center at North Carolina State University. Click here to subscribe.
Editor: Laurel Varnado
NC Solar Center, NC State University
