Up to 25 MW of solar will benefit ordinary customers of Philadelphia-area utility

Citizens groups won an order requiring the utility PECO to secure up to 25 MW of solar power, which will be Pennsylvania’s largest solar procurement serving ordinary customers.

November 18, 2024 William Driscoll

A Pennsylvania solar facility build by Dynamic Energy Solutions

Image: Dynamic Energy Solutions

Energy justice advocates in southeast Pennsylvania achieved “an important milestone” by securing an order from state regulators that requires the regional utility PECO to secure up to 25 MW of solar capacity through one or more power purchase agreements, said the citizens’ group Power Interfaith.

“This is only a first step” in ongoing work to achieve 100% clean affordable energy in Pennsylvania, said the multi-issue organization.

Pennsylvania currently has 2.2 GW (or 2200 MW) of solar capacity, which generates less than 1% of the state’s electricity, according to the national solar trade group SEIA. Much of Pennsylvania’s solar capacity serves large customers.

Last year Dwayne Royster, who was Power Interfaith’s executive director at the time, said that Pennsylvania state law only requires PECO to obtain one-half of 1% of its electricity from solar. A recent analysis by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that most states with higher renewables requirements are meeting them.

As PECO developed its resource plan last year, Power Interfaith used moral suasion in an effort to influence the utility, which provides electricity to 1.6 million customers, to secure more solar and wind power.

But then, the group said, the plan that PECO filed with state regulators in February “contained no increase in renewables from their plan of 10 years ago,” and the group “decided to actively participate in the complex regulatory proceeding.”

Power joined a coalition of energy justice advocates that filed expert testimony showing that PECO could have saved its customers between $67 million and $89 million over the course of its previous resource plan, by responding “to Pennsylvania climate mandates and rapidly falling renewable cost,” Power Interfaith said.

Following the regulatory hearings, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) ordered PECO to issue a competitive procurement for one or more ten-year, fixed-price power purchase agreements for up to 25 MW of solar capacity, to secure energy, capacity, and solar photovoltaic alternative energy credits from those projects.

If the first procurement does not result in a total contracted solar capacity of more than 15 MW, PECO must conduct a second procurement. NERA Economic Consulting will serve as the independent evaluator for the procurement.

The regulatory order “involves a demonstrated reduction in costs over time for customers, as well as an expansion of the Customer Assistance Program for those overburdened by high utility bills,” said Linnea Bond, health and environmental education director for Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, a coalition member.

The Energy Justice Advocates coalition also included Vote Solar, Clean Air Council, Sierra Club and PennEnvironment. The coalition was represented by the nonprofit law firm Earthjustice.

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