INTERVIEW: Sunthurst Energy discusses community solar lawsuit filed against PacifiCorp
Sunthurst Energy has filed a lawsuit against Pacific Power (PacifiCorp) claiming that five of their community solar projects in Oregon have been “significantly harmed” because of interconnection disputes caused by PacifiCorp that have substantially delayed the developer’s efforts in obtaining financing for the projects.
The lawsuit also put a stop to a default notice Sunthurst received in February from the utility stating that the developer needed to pay USD 750,000 in interconnection costs by April 7 to avoid termination of their projects.
PacifiCorp did not return multiple calls seeking comment.
“The first order of business was to get them to stop the defaults and killing of the projects,” said Daniel Hale, Sunthurst Energy Managing Member, in an interview with NPM.
The five pre-certified community solar projects named in the April 4 lawsuit include, 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).
Three of the five projects are being developed in low-income and tribal communities and were awarded state grants, which Hale had intended to use for interconnection costs, however, the funds will not be dispersed until the community solar projects are fully operational.
“They (PacifiCorp) refused to negotiate and essentially, when we didn’t make the payments, they gave us a notice of default on all five projects for lack of paying them which was absurd mind you this occurred after the OPUC opened their own investigation into PacifiCorp for their obstruction and delays," Hale said.
According to Hale, Pilot Rock Solar 1, had an interconnect study in 2015 and was one of the first projects to get pre-certified in the Oregon Community Solar Program. Over eight years later, the project is only about 30 percent constructed. Pilot Rock Solar 2 has completed even less.
The remaining three projects have not had any activity, despite having completed permitting and executed interconnection agreements with the utility.
“We are unable to close the construction loan on the second through fifth project because the first project wasn’t able to get interconnected in a reasonable time,” Hale said. “We originally had a three-month construction interconnection from the utility in the original interconnect agreement. We've had to amend and stall the project multiple times.”
According to the lawsuit, PacifiCorp’s construction durations for their interconnections increased approximately 400 percent from 2022 to 2023 and “falls short of minimum acceptable standards of service.”
“So, we’re stranded,” Hale continued. “I’m able to build this thing in four months but I won’t be able to get it interconnected because they are refusing to for 12 months after we’re built. So, we’re sitting out there accruing interest on USD 3m dollars—about USD 23,000 a month—when we’re fully tapped on our loan."
“They’re over charging interconnection and they’ve been allowed to do it for a long time," Hale said.
“They (PacifiCorp) have become very sophisticated in making project interconnections a miserable, expensive, and a time-wasting process that has discouraged development or operation of projects,” said John Lowe, Founder and Executive Director of Renewable Energy Coalition, in an interview with NPM.
“PacifiCorp has been very effective essentially in what I call weaponizing interconnection to avoid or mitigate obligations they would otherwise have—and that underlies Dan's experience with PacifiCorp."
PacifiCorp has until April 24 to respond to the complaint.
*This story was originally published exclusively for NPM subscribers.
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