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Community Solar Resources (DE)

Delmarva Power's Commitment to Renewable Energy

  • Climate change and its social and environmental effects are among the most significant challenges facing the world today. It is imperative we advance clean energy solutions as fast as possible across the areas we serve.
  • At Delmarva Power, we are working to provide new clean energy services and choices to meet our customers' evolving energy needs.
  • We are building a smarter, stronger and cleaner energy grid that connects customers to more energy from large-scale renewable projects, as well as community and private solar, and new services like energy efficiency programs and clean electric transportation.
  • We will continue to support the deployment of renewable power while meeting our commitment to providing safe, reliable and affordable energy service for our customers and communities.

Delmarva Power Supports Solar

  • Delmarva Power also supports customers who want their own solar energy system, this includes helping to interconnect community and private solar installations across our Delaware and Maryland service area.
  • Delmarva Power partners with customers to help provide safe and reliable interconnection of renewable energy into the local electric grid.
  • Customers who generate their own energy can interconnect with the grid and receive bill credits for excess generation.
  • Our Green Power Connection team provides a one-stop resource to help guide customers through the process of safely and reliably connecting their system to the grid.
  • As of December 31, 2021, almost 7,000 Delmarva Power customers in Delaware have installed private solar at their residence or business, totaling around 80 MW.

Delaware's New Community Solar Program

At Delmarva Power, we are working to provide new clean energy services and choices to meet our customers' evolving energy needs. Delmarva Power supports renewable energy and partners with our customers to provide safe and reliable interconnection of renewable energy into the electric grid.

On June 29, 2021, the Delaware General Assembly passed a bill creating a new program for community solar. On September 17, 2021, Governor Carney signed the new Community Solar bill into law Delaware's new community solar program permits customers to subscribe to community solar facilities located anywhere in the Delmarva Power Delaware service area and receive the maximum available financial benefit from that subscription.

The bill also requires the Delaware Public Service Commission (the Commission) to finalize regulations for the new program no later than March 11, 2022, including overall rules for community solar in Delaware, rules for billing and bill credits for subscribing customers, and rules about consumer protection and service terms and conditions. The final regulations will outline many of the processes that Delmarva Power will follow to ensure that community solar will be adopted in Delaware in a fair, efficient, transparent and cost-effective manner for our customers, as well as for community solar developers and their subscribers.

The public and interested stakeholders will have an opportunity to provide comments on the Commission's proposed regulations. Please check the Commission's website for updates on this process.

CommunitySolarDE@ExelonCorp.com is our dedicated email address for Community Solar in DE. Any questions can be directed here. We held an information webinar on 10/26/2021. Click here to view our presentation. One new requirement will be that Delmarva Power will be requiring proof of site control to be submitted with Community Solar applications.

Delmarva Power will continue to provide the latest updates as they occur, so please make sure to check back on this website. We are committed to doing our part to ensure the benefits of solar are accessible to all our customers and look forward to delivering the new community solar program to our customers and communities.

Existing Solar Programs with Delmarva Power in Delaware

On September 17, 2021, Governor Carney signed the new Community Solar bill into law, and the existing Community Energy Facility ("CEF") program is no longer available to new applicants. At this time, customers can still apply for a net energy metering. ("NEM") interconnection or aggregated net energy metering ("ANEM") interconnection. Please note that NEM and ANEM applications and projects will not be able to be transferred into a Community Solar project.

Updates on Community Solar in Delaware

  • In support of Delaware's new law to help expand access to community solar projects across the state, Delmarva Power has been aiding in the efforts to accelerate project siting and completion.
  • On November 1, 2021, Delmarva Power opened its system for community solar developers to submit their applications for interconnection through the company's online portal.
  • Delmarva Power received an influx of more than 60 community solar applications over a two-day period with many developers submitting multiple applications for a total of around 250 MW of proposed generation.
  • Almost immediately after submitting their applications, several developers began asking Delmarva Power to provide their queue position, or "QP."
  • The queue positions provide developers with an understanding of the order in which Delmarva Power has assigned projects submitted for interconnection with the local energy grid.
  • As part of the company's effort to be a good partner to community solar developers and to support the Governor and state's efforts to advance community solar across the area, Delmarva Power worked as promptly as possible to process the significant number of applications and to provide developers with their initial queue positions.
  • In response to developers' requests, Delmarva Power began providing developers with initial queue position communication updates on November 11 and advised that QPs were subject to change.
    • Project applications are processed and reviewed based upon the time and date stamp of a complete submitted application and are then subject to a complex engineering determination by Delmarva Power as to which feeder and substation best suits the location of the project.
    • Projects are then assigned an independent queue position on both the feeder and the substation.
  • Queue assignments may need to be updated based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, application submissions to incorrect locations, projects dropping out of the queue, and/or changes to engineering review of other projects (e.g., trying to determine the best and most cost-effective feeder for projects to interconnect).
  • As Delmarva Power continues the process of reviewing and updating queue positions, developers will be notified if queue position changes are necessary.
  • Queue positions should not be relied upon by developers to prematurely quantify value or viability of a project. Rather, developers should rely upon the cost letter provided by Delmarva Power following complete review and an engineering study, as applicable.
  • We understand that some developers may have received what they perceived to be favorable initial queue positions in early communications prior to the issuance of updated queue positions.
  • We appreciate the understanding of these developers and look forward to working with them as we assess project feasibility by undertaking thorough engineering studies.
  • Once an engineering study is completed, Delmarva Power will inform the developer so that they can begin taking steps to advance their community solar project(s).
    • These steps could include assessing and determining project feasibility due to necessary costs associated with local distribution system upgrades to accommodate interconnection.
  • As stated above, any actions taken by developers prior to receiving the result of the engineering study and an 'approval to install' from Delmarva Power would be premature.
  • As required by the new law, regulations are being promulgated by the Delaware Public Service Commission and are set to be finalized by March 11, 2022.

 Content Editor

ANNOUNCEMENTS

DE Community Solar Stakeholder meeting was held on March 1st.
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