5 Shortcuts to Boost Your State’s Community Power Score

Every year, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance publishes a Community Power Scorecard that shows how state laws and regulations can help make the electricity system affordable and workable for everyday people.

Five policies — community solar, plug-in solar, virtual power plants, solar permitting, and disconnection prevention — make up a third of your state’s total score. When states focus on making sure these five policies support affordable, community-controlled, renewable energy, they can become national community power leaders.

Here’s how your state can do it:

1. Community Solar

Community solar expands solar access by allowing customers to subscribe to a portion of a nearby solar project and save on their electric bills. Community solar provides a way for people without the financial means for solar on their rooftops and people who don’t own suitable rooftops — including renters — to reap the benefits of renewable energy.

Features of a perfect-score community solar policy include:

• Does not limit the amount (capacity) of community solar that can be installed in the state.
• Allows community solar programs that are not owned by an investor-owned utility.
• Guarantees savings for all subscribers, with additional savings for low- and middle-income (LMI) subscribers.
• Demands that utilities incorporate community solar statements into monthly utility bills, simplifying the subscriber experience.
• Requires that at least 40% of the energy output from a community solar system goes to LMI households, without mandatory credit checks.
• Guarantees a contract term of at least 15 years AND at a rate higher than avoided cost (including the value of renewable energy credits or other incentives).
• Offers other beneficial incentives for subscribers and communities, such as including battery storage or requiring prevailing wage.

2. Plug-in Solar

Plug-in solar (also known as balcony solar) allows consumers to use small solar panels that plug into a standard electrical outlet to save money on their electric bills. This expands access to solar savings and reduces grid demand and reliance on utility-distributed power, saving all ratepayers money by avoiding the need for costly grid upgrades.

Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, and Virginia passed model plug-in solar policies in 2026 that earn full credit on our Community Power Scorecard.

A perfect-score plug-in solar policy:

• Ensures that consumers can purchase and use plug-in solar panels without needing to get permission or oversight from their utility.
• Prohibits utilities from requiring interconnection agreements for plug-in solar panels.
• Keeps landlords from prohibiting tenants’ use of plug-in solar panels.
• Prevents utilities from charging plug-in solar users discriminatory extra fees.

3. Virtual Power Plants and Distributed Energy Resource Aggregation

Virtual power plants (VPPs) and distributed energy resource aggregation pay the owners of solar panels, batteries, smart thermostats, and other distributed energy resources (DERs) to help the grid at key moments. Enabling legislation requires utilities to implement virtual power plant programs for peak load reduction and other grid services. VPPs help lower energy costs for everyone by reducing the need to use or even build expensive peaker plants and associated transmission infrastructure.

A perfect-score virtual power plant and distributed energy resource aggregation policy:

• Specifies how participants will be compensated rather than relying on utility discretion, and allows that compensation to vary (e.g. extra pay for adding capacity to the grid during peak hours).
• Requires the same compensation and access for equivalent DERs whether they are owned by a customer, a utility, or a third party.
• Allows multiple third-party companies to compete with each other and/or the utility to enroll customers.
• Allows additional incentives to be offered to low-income participants.
• Prohibits fees or clawbacks applicable only to participants.
• Allows residential, commercial, and industrial participants.
• Covers multiple technology types (e.g. battery, electric vehicle) under a common framework.

4. Solar Permitting

State solar permitting policies can lower costs and barriers to installing rooftop solar by simplifying local permitting processes. As part of the solar installation process, most installers must acquire permits from a local government, to ensure installations are safe and comply with local laws. But inconsistent and resource-intensive permitting processes increase solar prices and make it harder for people to go solar. State lawmakers can streamline the permitting process to reduce those barriers and increase access to locally-produced and owned clean energy.

A perfect-score solar permitting policy:

• Allows installers to apply for a solar or battery permit using instant permitting software, such as the Department of Energy’s SolarAPP+ tool.
• Standardizes building codes across the state.
• Limits the ability of homeowners’ associations (HOAs) to block or restrict solar projects.
• Reviews permits for health and safety only, rather than including aesthetic factors.
• Limits fees on solar permits.

5. Disconnection Prevention

Disconnection prevention policies protect customers from losing electricity service for nonpayment. Many states implemented moratoriums on utility disconnection in 2020 — but electricity is an essential service at all times, not just during an economic crisis or public health emergency. Research from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Energy and Policy Institute found that just one percent of shareholder dividends for a dozen companies could have prevented 86 percent of the power shut offs between 2020 and 2022.

A perfect-score disconnection prevention policy:

• Prohibits shutoffs for all households, year-round.
• Requires automatic reconnection for all households, year-round.
• Eliminates late fees, deposits, and reconnection fees.
• Ensures that costs are absorbed by utility shareholders, not passed on to ratepayers.
• Requires utilities to publicly disclose shutoff and arrearage data every month.

Learn more about the 20 policies we evaluate, and how states are doing, through the Community Power Scorecard and interactive Community Power Map.