Item 3- Changes to Residential Rooftop Solar Rebate Program Presentation — original pdf

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A Resolution Summary Resolution on Changes to Residential Rooftop Solar Rebate Program D. SASARIDIS 16 JANUARY 2025 Overview Who: RMC Commissioners – Dino Sasaridis, Paul Robbins, Alison Silverstein. What: A resolution to improve and streamline Austin Energy’s solar rebate program and inspections, inclusive of solar and batteries. Why: Historic load growth will put stress on generation and transmission. Solar has the lowest cost of electricity generation and will fill this need, and batteries are needed to make the solar deployable at night, and reduce congestion. Costs and bureaucracy both bottleneck solar and battery deployments at the edge of the grid (on homes). This resolution aims to reduce bureaucracy, costs, and realign incentives towards this goal. When: Now, for a vote by RMC, to be presented to City Council. More about the ‘Why’ Claim: Significant demand growth is coming to the Texas grid. Summer baseline load is ~60 GW. This is mostly driven by electrification of carbon-based fuel activities. This is a good thing, but it will stress the electric grid. Passenger vehicle electrification: adds 12 – 18 GW to base load, 129 GWh/day Electrification of long-haul trucking: adds 8 – 12 GW to base load, 86 GWh/day • • • Growth of AI: 50 GWh/day • Air conditioner use: proportional to peak summer temperature, increases peak load on grid -> drives unreliability • Heat pumps displacing gas furnaces Industrial Heat via graphite heating • • Atmospheric carbon removal As Austinites, we will feel these changes impact us as rate increases and instability. Claim: Solar and batteries are a robust solution to adding capacity, but work is needed to reduce bureaucracy and streamline the process, which will decrease cost and increase competition. The language in this resolution can open Austin up to being a renewable energy superpower, setting an example for other cities, and making a difference in Texas. Content of the Resolution 1. Streamlining Administration 2. Consumer Protection 3. Standard for New Inverters 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections 5. Encouragement of Onsite Eneryg-Storage Batteries 6. Survey of Solar Inverter Installations to Determine Grid Protection Capability 7. Implementation Schedule 1. Streamlining Administration Eliminate the solar education course and quiz, which are presently required to receive the $2,500 rebate. The course and quiz are friction that discourage folks from installing solar, because receiving the rebate is gated by the quiz. Replace these two items with a flyer. • 26 slides • Low information density Example slide Replace it! a 1-page, information dense flyer that can be reviewed and accessed quickly when needed for reference. See next page! Thinking of getting solar? Great! Here’s what you need to know. The Basics • • • Solar panel sizes are given in watts (W), or kilowatts (1 kW = 1,000 W) a measurement of power – you can think of power as how many devices the solar panel can run at the same time. Your monthly energy bill is given in kilowatt-hours (kWh), which is how much energy you used in that month. 2 kilowatts of stuff (lights, TV, air conditioning…) running for 2 hours would be 2 kW x 2 hr = 4 kWh. An unshaded 1000 W solar panel, facing due south, will make about 1,500 kWh per year. Your solar contractor can estimate your production more accurately, accounting for shade and angle, but you can use this information as a sanity check. Does AE pay me for my solar production? • Yes – in Austin energy you are charged for electricity usage just as if you did not have solar, but then receive a bill credit of $0.091 / kWh produced by your solar panels. How many solar panel should I get? • AE can tell you your annual electricity usage, just click on this link. • Add 0.25 kWh per mile driven per year, if you’re going to add an electric vehicle • Divide that number by 1,500, and you have an estimate of how many kw of panels you should get to cover 100% of your usage. What about Batteries? • Batteries are used for home backup, when the Austin Energy grid fails. • Under present AE electricity pricing, batteries cannot save you any money, but it is possible this will change in the future. How do I detect fast-talking installers? What rebates are available? • 30% of your total installation costs (parts and labor) will come back to you as a tax credit, under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. • Austin energy will give you a $2,500 direct rebate • AE has a list of approved contractors that are known to be trustworthy, and you must pick from this list in order to receive the rebate. • Your total installed cost should be around $3 / W of solar panel installed. It might be a bit more for a very complicated roof. It should be a bit less for a very large system, because the solar panels themselves are a relatively small portion of the bill, and the fixed costs (inverter, design fees, etc) will not increase much. Maintenance • You migrainstormormsider cleaning your panels once per year, but most folks find they are cleaned quite well by an occasional rainstorm. 1. Streamlining Administration No additional requirements on the installation or parts used in the solar install to receive the rebate, including sizing of the array. AE limits sizing to 110% of annual usage for the rebate without an exemption. This undercuts the ability of a homeowner to plan for future loads, like an EV or heat pump. No need for this requirement, it offers no useful consumer protection, and the exemption adds process and friction. 2. Consumer Protection The required 10-year warranty (for rebate eligibility) needs to have a defined set of minimum provisions. 10-year warranty is an existing provision, but it is vague. This leads to false- security and false-comparisons, as some warranties will mean more than others, but because they are all required by AE for the rebate, people may think they are similar. 2. Consumer Protection Solar benchmark cost estimates for a few house types – for reference. Shopping for solar is infrequent, so having a trusted source of expected costs, including mean and standard deviation, taken from real costs of trusted installers, can help keep people from being taken advantage of. No requirement that customers view this information, just that AE make it available. 2. Consumer Protection 75% TSRF for first 3 kW only AE requires 75% Total Solar Resource Fraction (TSRF) a measure of how ideal a solar panel is, all things considered (shade, angle, direction-facing) for the entire array. This causes quoted solar arrays for customers to be smaller than otherwise, which leads to higher aggregate costs for everyone. Example (today, problematic): • 6-panel average: 80% TSRF – Approved! • 30-panel average: 74.49% TSRF – Denied! 2. Consumer Protection Inform the customer that they could save energy and reduce the size of their solar and/or battery installation if they make the host premises more energy efficient This is just useful information, and it can be supplied at a time when a customer is known to be interested in solar, i.e. applying for the rebate. Customers looking for the best $ / kWh savings may find that projects like attic insulation or AC upgrades are more efficient than solar, though this is certainly not always true. 3. Standards for New Inverters Required: IEEE 1547-2018, Category II standard, with frequency-watt mode, also known as frequency-droop response, enabled This internationally recognized standard for grid interoperability is already required for solar inverters. This category and setting ensures that in the event of overproduction of solar (too much sun, not enough load), solar inverters will automatically reduce their output and protect the grid. AE already requires this standard, but does not require this mode be set. This is consistent with CA Rule 21 and HECO Rule 14. Many solar inverters have this mode set by default, but it is not guaranteed. 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections Asynchronous Inspections Allow for solar inspections to be done with an online submission process, so an inspector, solar contractor, and homeowner do not have to coordinate schedules. This is costly, inefficient, and unnecessary. This task is fundamentally simple – it is reviewing wiring and equipment. It can be done with photos. AE will tell you that they have tried this during COVID and did not like it – but many municipalities around the country do online inspections successfully. This can be done well. 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections Online inspections can require specific photos, with function of the panels verified, returned within 2 business days. AE can use in-person inspection for contractors that fail > 20%, with path to improvement made available. Random in-person inspections also allowed, < 10% of total. AE can inspect by asking for photos of specific things, such as the panels themselves, inverters, and proof that the system works. The inspections should be returned in a timely fashion. 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections No Requirements for installs other than NFPA 70 National Electrical Code 2023." NFPA 70 National Electrical Code is adopted by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. It is comprehensive and has been refined over decades. This simple rule keeps AE from adding superfluous rules, and making an install in Austin the same as an install in San Antonio, which reduces costs for everyone. 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections No requirement for stamped engineering drawings for batteries. Battery installs are regulated by NFPA 70, NFPA 855, UL 9540, and the guidelines therein are entirely defined. There are no engineering calculations required for an installation, as is true for flat roof mounted solar panels. These requirements can be evaluated in an inspection photo. Batteries are installed without stamped drawings in most parts of Texas, this is unnecessary. 4. Improvements in AE Solar and Battery Inspections No additional inspections for things which are already required by the relevant battery or inverter standards. If an attribute is required by a standard, and the battery meets that standard, AE does not need to inspect for that attribute. Standards require ongoing testing/inspection of manufacturing lines and designs for proof of safety functions. Field wiring and mounting requires inspection, not the equipment itself. These standards ensure that even when the equipment fails, it fails safe and can be replaced safely. 5. Encouragement of Onsite Energy-Storage Batteries AE must submit a request for proposal for a virtual power plant or similar program. A virtual power plant is when many home batteries (like Tesla Powerwall) coordinate their activity and act as one large resource. Without coordinated grid control of batteries, they cannot support the grid in times of instability, or time-shift solar energy. = X 10,000…. 5. Encouragement of Onsite Energy-Storage Batteries AE Rebate should go from $2.5k for solar only, to $2k battery, $2k solar, or $5k combined. Austin is behind the times – batteries are needed (see initial slides for reasoning), so they should be incentivized. Solar without batteries is useful only to a point, and we are reaching that point. 5. Encouragement of Onsite Energy-Storage Batteries AE Rebate should offer $25 / kWh if customers commit to participate in a VPP. An additional incentive for customers to opt-in to a VPP, and for Austin Energy to make and use one. 6. Survey of Solar Inverters AE shall survey the prevalence and distribution of pre-IEEE 1547-2018-compliant inverters This is an information requirement – so that AE can assess the risk to the grid of older inverters that will not automatically support the grid in times of excessive production, or abnormal voltage/frequency conditions. This can be ascertained by gathering part number of inverters, which AE has for all installs, because it is required in the solar plan sets. ? 7. Schedule Must be implemented within 15 months Time is of the essence, as a plan is not a plan without a deadline. It may feel late, but it will never be earlier again, than it is right now. Appendix Load Growth • Electrification of long-haul trucking • TxDOT: 95 M miles per day- ~100% diesel or natural gas • • • 86 GWh/day of energy displacement (for reference Texas has about 10-20 GWh of batteries today) 4 GW base load increase evenly distributed (24 hours), likely closer to 8 or 12 GW given waking and driving hours! Summer load baseline = ~ 60 GW • Growth of AI • • • • Text inquiry = 5 Wh Image = 12 Wh At 9B queries per day (present google volume), this is another 50 GWh/day Source Air conditioner use • • climate change increasing temperatures – energy use increase will follow average temperature Peak load will follow average high summer temperatures • • • Vehicle electrification in general, heat pumps, etc 8x more miles than long-haul trucking 5x more efficient ~1.5x energy • • • Industrial Heat via graphite heating • Example - Antora • Carbon capture and sequestration • Example – Heirloom Is solar expensive? It shouldn’t be. Let’s buck the trend. Australia has us beat 3:1, and the difference is bureaucracy and competition. • Labor is similar • Part cost is similar • The difference is bureaucracy is low, driving competition up, driving prices for consumers down. • Additional context. Solar Power Finance without the Jargon Jenny Chase Slides from AE Solar Course that contain information