In December, Hawaiian Electric Co. approved rooftop solar systems for only six of the 2,749 customers in high-use areas waiting for clearance, according to a letter HECO filed with the state Tuesday.
HECO promised in October to approve almost all of the systems on the waiting list by the end of April. HECO says it still intends to do that.
The state’s largest utility tapped the brakes on rooftop solar installations in 2013 because of concern that a spike in photovoltaic systems in some neighborhoods could cause problems for the grid. The number of permits issued for rooftop solar systems in Hawaii last year declined 50 percent from 2013.
"We understand our customers who are on circuits with high amounts of PV have been waiting and appreciate their continued patience," said Darren Pai, HECO spokesman. "Consistent with the plans we announced earlier to address these PV applications, we expect to make significant progress on approving them in the coming months as we implement new technical solutions to integrate PV, which we’ve developed by working with the solar industry."
The utility is waiting on PV manufacturers to meet the new standards created from a study conducted by HECO, SolarCity, the Electric Power Research Institute and the National Renewable Energy Lab. The new standards would reduce the risk of damage to the grid from high numbers of connected PV systems. HECO is getting feedback on the new standards from the industry, Pai said.
"These new standards will improve the (solar systems’) ability to mitigate voltage spikes and disruptions to the stability of the electric system. We’ve now developed testing and certification protocols so inverter manufacturers can demonstrate their equipment meets these new standards," Pai said. "The manufacturers then need to conduct their testing and certification."
HECO expects that will be done in time to approve most systems by the end of April.
In September 2013 HECO changed its policy and began requiring customers to be approved by the utility before installing PV systems. The utility said the change was due to potential safety concerns and maintaining reliable service in areas where rooftop solar had grown rapidly and might cause problems with the electric grid.
Homeowners could not move forward with solar installations without the utility’s approval, leaving 4,807 solar customers waiting for approval as of Oct. 31, 2014.
In an October letter to the Public Utilities Commission, the utility announced plans to approve over the next six months all but a few hundred of the customer applications on file as of Oct. 22. Most would be approved by April and the rest by December. HECO reported that more than half of the queue, 2,749 customers, were in areas with high numbers of PV systems connected to the grid.
As of December a total of six customer applications waiting approval on Oahu in dense PV areas were approved, HECO reported Tuesday in a letter to the PUC. The utility has not approved any systems in areas with high levels of PV connected to the grid on Hawaii island or Maui.
Leslie Cole-Brooks, executive director of the Hawaii Solar Energy Association, said she is concerned the utility won’t reach its goal of clearing most of the waiting list by April.
"I was pleased to hear that they had a plan to clear the queue, but, based upon the approvals we’ve been getting, I don’t see how that is going to happen," Cole-Brooks said. "It doesn’t seem that they have made much of a dent, so I am concerned that they wont reach the goal after all. This is what we deal with all the time. They make promises and it doesn’t happen."
In December, 562 applications were approved for customers on Oahu in areas with lower concentrations of PV, Pai said.
Solar systems in areas with lower numbers of PV connected to the grid have seen a fast response, said Christian Adams, president of Bonterra Solar.
"It is pretty quick on the undersaturated areas. In the under 75 percent (saturated areas), we received approval within six weeks, but in the 75 to 100 percent areas, we receive them within three months. Over 100 percent and over 120 percent, they are kind of in a standstill," Adams said. "They are sort of in limbo, and there is no direction and the customers are frustrated."
