The Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC) said it will put Pacific Power’s (PacifiCorp) community solar program under greater scrutiny following an order that deliberated on complaints filed against the utility by Sunthurst Energy last year.

“We do not see evidence on this record that defendant (PacifiCorp) was motivated by animus against these complainants, but we are generally troubled by some of the actions by defendant in this case and by defendant’s overall track record in interconnecting community solar projects,” the OPUC said in the order issued in November 2024.

The order dismissed four of five complaints filed by Daniel Hale, Sunthurst Managing Member.

As of November 2024, PacifiCorp only had 7.3 MW of operating community solar projects in its territory compared to 32.6 MW in Portland General Electric (PGE) territory, according to the Order.

As a result, the OPUC ordered PacifiCorp to start submitting monthly progress reports detailing the status of community solar project interconnections in its queue to enhance monitoring. The reports, at minimum, will need to include the status of ongoing negotiations, work completed, changes to the dates of milestones, and a narrative explanation of any delay anticipated that could result in an online date more than two weeks after the commercial operation date (COD).

PacifiCorp is also currently battling interconnection complaints filed against it by Luminance, SolRiver Capital, and GreenKey Solar.

NPM SIGNALS is tracking 37 pre-operational projects, across 81 MW, in Pacificorp’s community solar queue.

Sunthurst vs. PacifiCorp

Sunthurst’s initial complaint revolved around five pre-certified community solar projects: Pilot Rock Solar 1, LLC (1.98 MW), Pilot Rock Solar 2, LLC (2.99 MW), Tutuilla Solar, LLC (1.56 MW), Buckaroo Solar 1, LLC (2.4 MW), and Buckaroo Solar 2, LLC (2.99 MW).

In addition to solar capacity, Buckaroo 1 proposed a battery energy storage system (BESS) that would provide back-up power to the City of Pendleton’s water treatment plant.

Sunthurst noted numerous roadblocks the developer faced while trying to interconnect community solar projects with PacifiCorp. Some of the more prominent issues revolve around the utility meeting agreed upon CODs and a payments schedule.

Sunthurst was awarded grants and financing on some of the projects, such as Pendleton’s Water Treatment plant project, which has an USD 850,000 grant attached to it through the Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) Community Renewable Energy Grant Program, to be paid when the project was placed in operation.

In counter claims, PacifiCorp said that Sunthurst persistently failed to honor contractual commitments by failing to make required progress payments which constitutes their right to terminate the interconnection agreements.

“Under the terms of the originally executed agreements, as well as several of the amended interconnection agreements, each of the projects would be interconnected and in-service today if Sunthurst had fulfilled its obligations under the contracts,” PacifiCorp said.

PacifiCorp said they worked in “good faith” with Sunthurst to amend interconnection agreements that primarily extend milestone dates at Sunthurst’s request to accommodate their need for additional time.

PacifiCorp also argued that interconnection payment is due prior to COD and that they should not be responsible for upfront the costs “in hopes of repayment after the work is complete.”

In reply comments, Sunthurst contended that all critical milestone requirements for design and construction were met and PacifiCorp’s testimony was founded on false premises.

Sunthurst also contested other aspects of the interconnection agreement, such as the requirement to install Direct Transfer Trip (DTT) at their interconnections. DTT is a communications-based method for disconnecting a generator from the distribution and transmission system when an upstream fault occurs. PacifiCorp said that its DTT’s are necessary to minimize outage duration, avoid unintentional islanding, and mitigate fire risk.

The OPUC’s order contended that PacifiCorp had not sufficiently demonstrated the need for DTT at Sunthurst’s projects, and the risks cited by them appear to be theoretical or minimal, which does not constitute the substantial burden.

Hale told NPM that they submitted revised single line diagram for four of the five projects, pulling all DTT equipment. Hale said his engineer estimated it would save them approximately USD 1.3m.

Last month, PacifiCorp came back with revised estimates that increased the total costs by USD 864,000, according to Hale.

Hale notified the OPUC who scheduled a mediation meeting earlier this month, where both parties were directed to submit estimates to the OPUC engineer who will have the final say.

Hale is expecting his attorney to send the estimate this week.

Financing jeopardy

In August, StoneBridge Securities, Sunthurst’s financial consultant and placement agent, submitted a letter to the Commission to express their “grave concerns” about the lengthy interconnection delays of the projects which would result in the developer losing its long-term finance offer.

StoneBridge said it sourced a tax credit investor for the projects which are predicated on being able to fund the projects at an operational condition during the 2024 calendar year.

“We know lack of interconnection progress this year has the tax credit investor actively searching for alternative projects in other states that they can rely upon for the 2024 tax credits they seek,” StoneBridge wrote, adding that the investor may not be in a position to complete such transactions in 2025 as tax situations can change.

With the 2024 calendar year ending and the projects yet to be interconnected, the deal initially fell apart, however, StoneBridge said that the projects would still be considered if the costs and interconnection date was locked, according to Hale.

“The conversations are luckily still on going, but there’s still no certainty,” Hale said. “I am very fortunate the bank would even consider it after 2024. The bank has a reoccurring annual liability, and they are willing to look at it again, but I will be competing against a flock of other projects.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.

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