Cypress Creek Renewables director talks about Arizona community solar efforts

Cypress Creek Renewables (CCR) has been waiting for Arizona to set up a community solar market and is now participating in the working group to help build a program proposal to be presented in November.

Justin Biltz, director of policy and strategy for community scale markets for CCR, told NPM that the developer got involved because it has been watching Arizona for some time.

“Solar resources there is so exceptional and could be among one of the best places in the country to produce solar energy via community solar projects,” he said, adding that CCR has been looking for the right time to engage with the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) and other stakeholders in the development of a state program.

Biltz explained that CCR sees Arizona as being positioned as a nationwide leader in community solar due to it being one of the most efficient places in the U.S. to produce solar energy given its available resource.

“We agreed with the vision that the commission laid out when they created the working group process and think a competitive community solar program with third party development would help deliver projects that provide customers with flexibility to meet their energy needs,” he said. “The state is going through a clean energy transition, so these projects could incrementally help Arizona meet those clean energy goals. That’s what we envision for the market in Arizona, assuming the program fundamentals get set up in an appropriate way.”

Working group

In May, the ACC organized the working group to establish details of a program. That working group is comprised of ACC staff, Arizona Public Service (APS), and the solar group, which includes CCR, Arcadia, Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association (AriSEIA), Solar United Neighbors, Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and Turning Point.

“We’ve been working as a diverse group of stakeholders that are interested in the implementation of community solar in Arizona,” Biltz said, stating that so far, the workshops have consisted of robust and detailed discussion. Among the solar group, he said there is “good alignment” on how to structure a program.

The solar group filed its program proposal August 26, which laid out a one-year annual capacity cap in the APS service territory for 400 MW in total projects. It also proposed for APS to be limited to developing Community Solar Facilities with nameplate capacity that does not exceed 5% of the annual capacity cap. Additionally, allocation of the program capacity was shown to be awarded on a first come, first-serve basis to developers who demonstrate an executed interconnection agreement with APS.

“One thing we wanted to think through was what amount of annual capacity would be reasonable for the program,” Biltz said. “When we looked at the size of APS’ load in the state, we came up with a number which represents 4% of their annual consumption.”

He explained that this seemed like a reasonable place to start the discussion and is hopeful that the ACC will consider the 400 MW in the program proposal.

As for the minimum project size, he said that requirement was not included in the proposal but that in the order from the ACC to create the program, it laid out projects up to 20 MW.

“It will be up to individual capacity on substations and feeder lines to determine what the actual project sizes will be, but the proposal we put forth will permit up to 20 MW,” he said. “In reality projects may be 5 MW to 10 MW in range.”

As the solar group built this proposal, Biltz said that CCR brought in economic modeling experts from the Brattle Group to help come up with key components of the program, including the value and benefits of community solar projects in Arizona.

The solar group also worked to include fundamentals for the program seen in other community solar programs throughout the U.S. that have proven successful.

“Certainly, Cypress Creek is a large developer, owner and operator of community solar across the country and we participated in these policy making decisions, are well-informed on what the fundamentals are that lead to good programs and what have led to challenges,” he said.

Biltz explained that CCR focused on components that ensured a program proposal that was sufficient size and included adequate consumer protections since “this is going to be a new program,” and making sure projects can be compensated that recognize the value they bring to the grid so “we can adequately finance the projects and develop them.”

Since the solar group’s program proposal filing, Biltz said supplemental filings have been added on September 9 detailing how a bill credit could work.

Next steps

APS is expected to file its own program proposal this month, though in the most recent working group expressed doubt that it would be complete. When asked about this, Blitz said CCR is anxious to review the program proposal from APS and discuss it during the next working group meeting. Currently, there is no date set for the next meeting, but Blitz hopes that when another is held, they will be able to establish alignment on a final proposal to be brought before the ACC for a vote in November.

CCR has also been involved in other community solar efforts in the U.S., including the ongoing efforts in New Mexico and in Virginia’s pilot program.

“We have some markets that are more mature, where programs have already been implemented and we are developing projects, while in other states we are trying to pursue implementation either legislatively or through regulatory activity,” Blitz said.

Blitz has been personally involved in New Mexico, where he said CCR is encouraged by the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission’s (PRC) leadership. NPM has been covering the efforts in New Mexico, which are now facing pushback from Xcel Energy in the state Supreme Court to stay implementation.

Blitz said that rollout of the community solar program has been slower than CCR originally envisioned, but that the PRC is trying to put out a community solar RFP towards the end of the year.

“There are a couple things that have to happen first,” he said, referring to the utilities that still need to file the community solar tariffs, as well as the ongoing interconnection rulemaking. “Once those are done, they will be well positioned to put out the RFP early next year. We’re interested in participating in the RFP and proving to policymakers in New Mexico that the program is a success and delivering on what they originally envisioned so the program can be expanded in the longer term.”

*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers in September.


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