The Storage and Clean Energy Coalition (SCEC), a group of solar and storage industry members, has filed testimony opposing the possible merger of Dominion Energy and NextEra Energy, arguing that the combination would harm competition in Virginia.
In the testimony, SCEC said the proposed merger “poses an unacceptable risk to the competitive landscape in Virginia” and opposed it as filed. The group raised concerns that the deal could affect the growth of renewable energy in the state and said the utilities are silent on competition in generation procurement, distributed energy resources and non-wire alternatives to traditional utility infrastructure.
Lindsey Hallock, interconnection policy director at Permit Power, an SCEC member, disputed the utilities’ position that the merger would not affect competition. She said the claim does not hold for Virginia families seeking to lower bills by generating and storing their own electricity. According to Hallock, Dominion and NextEra policies make connecting home solar and batteries to the grid time-consuming and expensive. She called on the commission to require interconnection reform as a merger condition, including automated interconnection and authorization of meter socket adapters to reduce costs.
SCEC also said long interconnection queues at both utilities could worsen after a merger. It asked the utilities to adopt interconnection automation for residential and small commercial projects and to permit meter sockets that can avoid main service panel upgrades.
The testimony further cited NextEra’s political influence, including its Florida Power & Light utility’s role in influencing legislation that would have substantially reduced rooftop solar compensation for residential customers when a very small share of households had rooftop solar.