Community Renewable Energy

Utility Relationships for Renewable Resources

Renewable project developers will be working with electric utilities in two primary ways. First, they must reach an agreement on how a project will interconnect with the local utility or other distribution or transmission provider. Second, and often related, the project developer must decide who will purchase the energy from the project, in most cases this will be a utility, whether it is sold to the local utility or wheeled to another utility’s service territory. In some cases, all or part of the power from a renewable project will be used by a customer on-site, but even in that case, it is important to have a good understanding of the impact of the project on the local utility’s system. This section is designed as a resource both for project developers and for the utilities working with them, and discusses various benefits and challenges of community renewable energy projects. We address four main topics, some of which are interrelated:

• Value of Renewable Resources to Utilities
• Energy and Capacity Purchase and Sale Arrangements
  
• Interconnection
  
• Power quality and intermittency issues
  

A good working relationship between the project developer and local utilities is essential. The earlier contact is made and good relationships can be established the better.