By Charlie Mahler, KYMN News
The City of Northfield learned recently that solar energy plans for its new ice arena are in disarray after Xcel Energy informed the city that grid congestion would not allow it to offload excess solar energy to the utility.
Councilor Chad Beumer apparently prompted the discussion at the February 10 City Council meeting after hearing that solar energy aspects of the arena project had hit an impasse. City Administrator Ben Martig, who said he originally planned to address the issue in March, acknowledged the situation to the council.
“The building was fully designed to have the onsite solar,” Martig reported. “We had the panels ordered and the intention was to have them installed, but during Xcel Energy’s permitting review process, as part of that, they determined they didn’t have the current capacity to be able to have the onsite solar on the facilities.”
Initial scoping, Martig said, indicated Xcel Energy was able to accept Northfield’s excess solar energy. After learning of the updated situation, city officials met with Xcel energy staff to better understand the issues and how they might affect other city building projects, according to Martig.
“Northfield is an anomaly,” Martig said his team was told. “This grid congestion we’re experiencing is known throughout their organization. Basically, what we have is a level of congestion for interest to add onsite solar and community solar cartons, in our area, there isn’t the capacity.”
The city plans quarterly meetings with Xcel to understand what Martig termed a “pretty complicated regulatory world” to track the situation for the ice arena and other solar energy plans affected by the grid congestion issue, namely at the Northfield Community Resource Center and the Wastewater Treatment Facility.
Martig noted that the city was able to return the ice arena panels to the manufacturer for credit and that the application to Xcel would stay active should capacity open up or if other entities ahead of Northfield in the queue abandon their first-come, first serve positions to put energy back into the grid.
Martig recognized that grid capacity issues do impact the city’s climate goals and cost savings strategies. He noted the city has applied for grants for using geothermal energy systems as an alternative to solar in certain situations.
“It’s not apples to apples on a solar system,” he admitted, “but it might be a different kind of an investment that might have a return for us that we have more control over.”
Martig said his office is exploring various solutions to the energy impasse including tracking capacity changes on the grid, potentially financing transmission upgrades, lobbying energy regulators, and partnering with community solar projects that might be ahead of them in the sell-back queue. Public Works Director and City Engineer David Bennett confirmed Martig’s characterizations and added detail on solar issues at the waste water plant at the meeting.
“I work with the same company we [Northfield] were looking at doing, doing solar projects on houses all the time,” councilor Beumer said in reaction to Martig’s and Bennett’s information. “We don’t sell anything to anybody without being 100% sure we can do it first. I’m just going to leave it at that, because it really, really irritated me.”
Mayor Erica Zweifel acknowledged Beumer’s “disappointment” but said she appreciated some of the potential solutions outlined by Martig and Bennett. Councilor Kathleen Holmes wondered how grid realities could affect the goals of the city’s sustainable building policy.
Councilor Peter Dahlen requested an updated operational budget for the ice arena in the absence of the planned solar energy option.
Contact Charlie Mahler at news@kymnradio.net
