[T]he Vermont Supreme Court reversed a permit for a New Haven solar project Friday morning, saying the town of New Haven was improperly denied the chance to raise issues having to do with the project’s connection to the electrical grid.
The project is up and running, having been granted a permit more than a year ago.
Green Mountain Power, which serves that part of the state, advocated for the project and testified that the grid can accommodate the 300-kilowatt output.
“We did look at the project, and we concluded it would be able to be connected safely and reliably,” said GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure. “With the commission looking at it again, we look forward to being as helpful as possible in the next phase of commission review. As always, our focus is on making sure our customers are served safely and reliably.”
New Haven’s attorney, Cindy Hill, said Green Mountain Power is wrong and that the utility doesn’t have room on its grid for the project, but refused to say on the record why that’s the case.
Likewise, Deputy Public Service Commissioner Riley Allen said he can’t talk about the issue of the solar project’s connection to the electrical grid, even though in 2016 the department argued that connection to the grid wouldn’t be a problem.
Allen said as well that he does not know whether the Department of Public Service continues to support the project, which it argued in favor of before the Public Service Board in 2016.
The project developers’ attorney, Leslie Cadwell, said the Supreme Court’s decision looks like a surmountable technical hurdle.
“The project is up and operating, and this is much more of a procedural setback than a setback to the project providing benefit to customers and to the state,” Cadwell said. “It’s a very well-sited project, and we just have to go through some more process.”
The Supreme Court sent the project’s permit — called a certificate of public good — back to the Public Utility Commission for reconsideration. The court said the move turned on a technical issue involving deadlines for public notice for a single New Haven resident living near the project.
Hill said the Supreme Court’s decision is a purely procedural one.
Hill refused to say whether the interconnection issue is central to the case that will return for another round before the commission, formerly called the Public Service Board.
Hill also argued in the case that the 300-kilowatt solar project, which sits on 5 acres of a 59-acre parcel, would hurt the region’s economy, soil, water, wetlands and endangered species, and would interfere with orderly development in the region.
New Haven Selectboard Chairwoman Kathleen Barrett did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
New Haven Selectboard Vice Chairman Steve Dupoise said he didn’t know enough about the case to speak about it publicly. He referred questions to Selectboard member Taborri Bruhl, who did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
The issue, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling, is that regulators didn’t consider arguments Hill tried to raise about Green Mountain Power’s ability to accommodate the electricity from the project.
She raised the issue after the deadline for doing so had passed, according to the March 2016 order approving the project.
But that deadline was wrong, Hill successfully argued before the Supreme Court, because 45 days hadn’t elapsed after everyone in the area was notified.
One New Haven resident near the project wasn’t notified until relatively late in the process, because the project’s backers, New Haven GLC Solar LLC, had moved the location of an access road at some point after sending out an initial round of 45-day notices to neighbors.
Moving the dirt road had brought that other residence within the project’s vicinity, and so the 45-day clock had to begin when that property owner was notified, the Supreme Court said.
The Legislature has required regulators to speed up the application process for projects like these when possible, to promote renewable energy. Accordingly, lawmakers gave the commission authority to waive certain rules when it seems appropriate.
But the board can’t waive that rule unless all parties have had the chance to ask opposing parties for more information, a process called discovery. The board couldn’t waive the 45-day-notice rule for the sole affected neighbor because New Haven hadn’t had the chance to conduct discovery on the GMP interconnection issue, the court found.
The court’s ruling is as it should be, said Tony Klein, a former state representative who until 2016 headed the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, an influential legislative body that has sought repeatedly to promote renewable energy in Vermont.
“This is the regulatory process,” Klein said. “That’s the way this works. We have our policy goals, and we have our regulatory process. … Projects go through the process. If they get the green light, they build it. If they get the red light, they don’t build it. It’s fine with me.”
