On April 9, 2025, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (the Commission) issued an order establishing a one-time allocation of interconnection costs for community solar projects being developed by Sunthurst Energy, LLC, to PacifiCorp’s Oregon retail customers.
The Commission’s order is intended to provide a final resolution of a complaint filed by Sunthurst against PacifiCorp in April 2024. In its complaint, Sunthurst alleged that PacifiCorp was inflating interconnection costs, requiring unnecessary work, and delaying the interconnection process for five community solar projects, leading to financial hardship for Sunthurst and putting the projects’ success in jeopardy.
Because PacifiCorp is a monopoly provider of interconnection services to customers seeking to supply power to the electricity grid in PacifiCorp’s territory, the interconnection process is highly regulated by the Commission.
The Renewable Energy Coalition intervened in the proceeding in May 2024, citing broad concerns with barriers to the interconnection of community solar projects in Oregon beyond just the Sunthurst projects. Oregon’s community solar program is designed to benefit Oregon utility customers by providing bill credits to community solar subscribers and carving out part of the program for low-income customers to access these credits. When projects cannot interconnect, customers cannot receive those benefits.
Following the Coalition’s intervention, a fully litigated contested case ensued. Sunthurst put on testimony describing PacifiCorp’s cost overruns, technical requirements that Sunthurst’s engineers believed to be unnecessary, and lengthy delays. Sunthurst also described PacifiCorp’s failure to respond to basic communications necessary to facilitate interconnection, and the utility’s confusing position on the legality of adding battery storage to one of the community solar projects. PacifiCorp’s testimony defended its conduct in the interconnection process. The Coalition’s testimony explained how the types of barriers Sunthurst was experiencing in trying to interconnect to PacifiCorp’s system were endemic of issues experienced by other community solar projects, with the result that the program’s overall success was being hampered. The Coalition also supported the addition of battery storage to community solar projects.
After a hearing and briefing, the Commission issued an order in November 2024 granting in part and denying in part Sunthurst’s requested relief. In particular, the order determined that expensive technical requirements, including direct transfer trip, PacifiCorp sought to impose on Sunthurst were not supported by the record, and that PacifiCorp and Sunthurst should work out a less expensive alternative. The order also determined that adding battery storage to a community solar project is legally permissible. Finally, the order retained jurisdiction over the matter to try to facilitate successful interconnection of Sunthurst’s projects.
Under the Commission’s continuing jurisdiction, Commission Staff worked on identifying a path to resolving remaining issues and getting the projects interconnected. The Commission’s April 9 order was the culmination of this effort by Staff. After the Commission’s resolution of some of Sunthurst’s issues in November 2024, cost remained a major barrier. By approving a one-time allocation of some remaining interconnection costs to PacifiCorp retail customers, the Commission addressed that remaining barrier and created a possible path to successful interconnection of Sunthurst’s projects.
Ken Kaufmann represented Sunthurst.
Sanger Greene PC (then Sanger Law PC) represented the Renewable Energy Coalition in the complaint proceeding.
The Renewable Energy Coalition is an organization whose members include irrigation districts, water districts, corporations, small utilities, and individuals who own and operate nearly fifty qualifying facilities – small renewable energy generators that operate under the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. The Coalition advocates to insure that small renewable generation projects continue to make an important contribution to the Northwest’s energy future.
Disclaimer
These materials are intended to as informational and are not to be considered legal advice or legal opinion, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. Information included about previous case results does not assure a similar future result.
