Electric Cooperatives

This Cooperative located in Central Texas coordinated with seven other Texas Electric Cooperatives (“the Consortium”) in a project to jointly solicit bids for the preparation of a Request for Proposal that provided them with means to then solicit proposals from companies that will design and install Community Solar projects on a turn-key basis on properties in their individual service areas. These eight Cooperatives provide reliable electric service to over 170,000 connected meters within their respective service territories. Schneider Engineering served as the Consortium consultant and our scope or work included: Preparing two joint RFP’s for the design and installation of Community Solar Project on a turnkey basis, including Six Cooperatives – One solar array that will initially produce no more than .99 MW AC at the interchange meter and Two Cooperatives – Two solar arrays that initially produce no more than .99 MW AC at the interchange meter(s); Issuance of RFP / Management of Proposal Responses including Issue RFP, Managing and responding to vendor information requests and questions, and Receiving proposals from vendors; Request for Proposal Evaluation including Fully evaluate and vet the responses of the RFP; Developing short list of suppliers from the RFP process; Attending short listed vendor meetings as requested by Cooperatives; Negotiating contractual agreements with preferred suppliers; Finalizing and implementing contractual agreements with preferred suppliers; Attending Cooperative collaborative meetings as requested by group; and Attending Cooperative staff / board meetings as requested by Cooperatives. The RFP requested technical and cost information regarding various options, such as tracking arrays vs. fixed arrays, SSA (Solar Services Agreements), PPA (Purchased Power Agreements), and other purchase / ownership options.

This Electric Cooperative contracted Schneider Engineering, LTD. (SE) to complete studies to analyze the effect of two Community Solar installations on their system at two different substations. For the first substation, two studies were completed, one for a 500 KVA system and one for an 826 kVA system. At the other, the study was completed for a 999 kVA with possible battery storage in the future. SE added the Community Solar installation locations to their Milsoft model including the expected demand output and fault contribution to the system. Voltage drop studies were completed for both peak and non-peak load levels during daylight hours to determine if any system improvements were needed to support the Community Solar addition. Historical interval data was reviewed to determine if backfeed through the substation bus was a possibility during off peak daytime hours. Fault analysis and coordination studies were also completed to determine the Community Solar contribution to the fault flow on the distribution system as well as coordination between sectionalizing devices during potential backfeed. Schneider Engineering's scope of work included: Managing preparation of DP/LSE audit response, serving as subject matter expert for audit, reviewing active standards with Client, ensuring appropriate documentation and evidence is provided, preparing written responses for each standard requirement, executing and submitting pre-audit questionnaire, reviewing all submittals and developing audit "game plan", and providing follow-up support. (2019-Current)