The Georgia House of Representatives Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications Committee held its second ad hoc meeting on community solar where representatives from Georgia Power, Arcadia, Dimension, Rabago, Soltage, and SEIA made arguments on the benefits and disadvantages of bringing a third-party community solar program to the state.

The three-hour meeting was held at Kennesaw State University Center in Kennesaw on November 19.

In the 2023-24 legislative session, Republican Rep. Beth Camp, R-135, introduced House Bill (HB) 1152, the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act, which received two hearings in subcommittee before dying when the biennial ended in March. The next session convenes in January 2025. The bill being drafted for next session may end up looking different, Camp said.

Wilson Mallard, Director of Renewable Development for Georgia Power, said that Georgia Power is respectfully but adamantly opposed to unregulated third-party community solar as proposed in HB 1152.

Mallard argued that what has been proposed does not deliver benefits to its customers in the same way that their renewable procurements do now.

“Third-party community solar with a compensation scheme based on the retail rate is the most expensive type of solar you can buy,” Mallard said. “It’s been said that solar is the cheapest form of generation—well absolutely—but it depends on what you pay for it.”

Prices in the range of three to six cents a kilowatt-hour through a competitive procurement is a good price, Mallard said, before pointing out that Georgia Power’s residential rate averages in the 12-cent range.

Mallard added that paying a retail rate for a wholesale product creates a cost-shift and causes rates to go up for everyone. It is on the record and has been proven in Georgia, Mallard said.

“I can’t emphasize that enough,” Mallard said. “Community solar in this format is more than double the price that Georgia Power buys solar from similar type facilities right now.”

Mallard also argued that 85% of current costs will be “unfairly” shifted to other customers. He estimated that it would increase non-subscriber bills to roughly USD 48 a month to maintain the grid as well as other expenses.

Additionally, Mallard said that 90% of the solar on the ground connected to Georgia Power’s grid is owned by third parties. Georgia Power owns about 10% percent.

Camp questioned Mallard what percentage of users are part of a community solar program. According to Mallard, the utility has three operating community solar facilities with about 2,000 subscribers.

Camp pointed out that Georgia Power has about 2.7 million customers in the state.

Mallard highlighted Georgia Power’s competitive open market solicitations for DG projects, which includes nearly 560 operating projects totaling more than 370 MW. The 2023 DG RFP delivered another 12 projects totaling 42 MW. Georgia Power is authorized to submit its own projects into the RFP.

“We’ll be over 400 MW when this last batch of projects comes online,” Mallard said. “We have another procurement ongoing right now. They are going to continue for the foreseeable future. There will be no shortage of opportunities for distributed generation developers to find opportunity in Georgia.”

In October, the Georgia Public Service Commission approved 250 MW of capacity for Georgia Power’s second DG RFP which closed to bids on November 4.

James Feinstein, Arcadia Director of Policy, provided insight into the community solar subscriber experience.

Brandon Smithwood, Dimension Energy Vice President of Policy, said that since the company’s founding in 2018, the Atlanta-based developer has deployed over USD 600m in capital across 500 MW of projects. In the next few years, Smithwood said Dimension is hoping to do about 2,000 MW and USD 3bn.

“We’d like to direct some of those funds to Georgia,” Smithwood said, prior to presenting on project economics and development.

Jonathon Roberts, Soltage Vice President of Development, discussed why community solar saves all rate payers money and the benefits it brings to the distribution grid. Roberts said Soltage has been working on DG projects in the state and hopes to add community solar development to the mix.

Karl Rabago, Principal, Rabago Energy on behalf of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), discussed where the bill savings of community solar comes from and how a market-based community solar program under the regulation under the PUC would benefit customers.

Bob Sherrier, staff attorney for Southern Environmental Law Center, argued that there is no data backing up the cost shift argument made by Georgia Power.

“We agree if you define cost shift to mean people will save money on their bills,” Sherrier said. “If you mean cost shift to say that non-subscribers will pay more because of community solar programs well then, that hasn’t been shown and we strongly disagree with that statement.”

“What Georgia Power was really arguing then was that when they lose revenue and profit when people save on their bills,” added Sherrier. “The lost revenue is not the same thing as increasing the cost for other people—increasing the cost to serve non-subscribers. It is not the same thing as somebody’s bill getting lower.”

If the new community solar project adds benefit to the grid, then it could decrease cost, Sherrier said.

“Georgia Power is not entitled to that revenue,” Sherrier said. “If somebody buys an energy efficient fridge and uses less power that year, Georgia Power doesn’t get to add a charge to their bill to recover the money that they thought they were going to recover from that person from the beginning of the year.”

“Really, it’s simple,” Sherrier said. “The utilities oppose customer-driver third-party owned projects like community solar because they threaten to supplant utility investments and to take away from shareholder profits.”

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