|
Certain Durango neighborhoods are meeting 100% of their daytime electricity needs with local solar energy. This is a positive step for the community and moves us towards meeting LPEA’s carbon reduction goals, but it also means that at this time, we cannot accommodate more solar power systems in these areas because of safety and reliability concerns.
LPEA’s generous solar policy allowed larger systems to be installed than what Colorado state law requires. This policy enabled LPEA to grow solar generation faster than most electric utilities in the state of Colorado. In fact, solar had been growing at a 10% rate but rapidly grew to a growth rate of 60% in 2023.
In 2023, LPEA implemented a sophisticated grid monitoring system to better understand the flow of electricity along our power lines. This data was analyzed by third-party grid experts who determined that because of the significant increase in residential solar and a few very large commercial solar systems, several areas in Durango are at capacity for daytime solar. LPEA has allowed members to generate more solar than they need, which serves the neighboring houses and businesses. However, in some of these areas, there are not enough houses and businesses to take more solar energy. This can create a safety and reliability risk if allowed to continue. We understand that this is disappointing for many who want to install solar in these areas, but it is LPEA’s priority to keep our members safe and their lights on.
There are several solutions we are investigating that will allow for more solar, but many of them are not commercially available or require costly upgrades to the electrical system – in the millions of dollars. These upgrades will need to be budgeted for and could impact rates for members. This is why we need time to investigate our options to maintain the reliability of the grid and to maintain affordable rates.
We are investigating future solutions while maintaining a waitlist of members wishing to interconnect. Possible solutions include:
- Homeowner-installed batteries
- Substation batteries
- Adoption of advanced technologies that could automatically reduce the amount of energy going back to the grid
- Community Solar Gardens
The areas shaded in red in this interactive map are areas where solar installations are serving over 90% of the daytime loading and we are not accepting new interconnection applications in these areas at this time.
We remain committed to keeping our members safe and your lights on.
| 
