Xcel Energy filed its December Report on the Community Solar Gardens Program this week, announcing that 13 projects totaling 43 MW have entered into the design and construction phase. Xcel also reports that it has received “few additional applications” since the spike in applications in September. There are currently 801 applications in the interconnection queue and 713 applications being reviewed for completeness. At this time, 47% of applications are pending completeness review stage, 50% are either being studied or waiting for payment, and 3% have moved into construction. The applications in the queue that are considered complete represent a total of 749 MW, and of that total 606 MW are considered compliant with the co-location size limit. The report also contains details relating to the tariffed timelines, including the fact that 50% of applications have advanced into the interconnection process within the 30-day timeline. The report explains that only projects that are first in queue receive a Statement of Work for an engineering study within the 15 day timeframe, and also that Xcel achieved its 90 working days target for completing the engineering study 95% of the time.
