Despite hours of excoriating tirades — Are you the Public Utilities Commission, or the Private Utilities Commission? Why are you propping up greedy “serial killer utilities” and rewarding their murderous negligence? Don’t you realize this plan will completely destroy rooftop solar in California? — the California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved a wildly controversial revamp to how future solar system owners will be billed and credited.
The new rules will change how much future rooftop solar owners are paid for exporting energy to the grid, depending on how much clean energy is available at the time. It would not, however, affect existing rooftop solar owners, who’ll remain on their current tariff plans for 20 years after their systems hooked into the grid.
Going forward, folks who install new systems with batteries to store solar power, and who can pump energy after dark when it’s most needed, will get the most handsome compensation. Folks without batteries, who only pump excess energy to the grid during the day — when it’s already plentiful — will get much less compensation.
“What this decision does is take us into the future, by offering more support for solar systems paired with battery storage,” said Alice Reynolds, PUC president, at the contentious meeting on Thursday, Dec. 15.
California has abundant clean energy during the day, when solar systems are humming, but must fire up dirty fossil fuel plants at night after the sun goes down and solar systems stop producing energy, she said. Only about 15% of rooftop solar systems have batteries to get them through the night.
The goal is to transition to a “thriving” solar-plus-storage marketplace, Reynolds said.
The solar industry won’t die as a result, commissioners insisted. There will likely be a slowdown in rooftop installations after the new rules fully take effect — just as there has been with every change to what’s officially called “net energy metering” in the past — but the market will rebound, be even stronger and help California achieve its no-carbon goals, said Commissioner John Reynolds.
Thousands will find that hard to swallow. Critics lambasted the proposal for hours, arguing that the real impetus is to preserve monopoly utility profits from rooftop solar’s threat to their bottom line. Commissioners said the criticism was harsh, grossly unfair and misleading.
“We’ve had parties vigorously arguing their self-interest,” said Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen, from the utilities to the solar industry itself. “This is a responsible and forward-looking decision that balances many competing priorities.”
The current system — which will remain for existing solar owners — pays far more for rooftop solar power than its market value, analyses have said. It’s subsidized by customers without solar, many of whom can least afford it.
The Legislature ordered the PUC to address this troubling “cost-shift” nearly a decade ago. This latest plan replaces one that tanked a year ago, which would have imposed a monthly charge of about $50 to cover fixed costs like grid upkeep and fire suppression, sparking outrage over a “solar tax.”
The cost shift that’s left in place totals roughly $4 billion a year, analyses show, bore by less-affluent consumers without rooftop solar who subsidize their wealthier solar neighbors.
Thursday’s vote was a missed opportunity that sentences lower-income Californians to paying hundreds of dollars extra “in perpetuity,” said the Rev. Frank Jackson, chief executive officer of Village Solutions Foundation, in a prepared statement.
Defenders of the current system dismiss the cost shift as an illusion and say the utilities are to blame.
“Big utilities want to change the rules in their favor in order to eliminate a growing competitor, keep consumers stuck in utility monopolies, and protect their profits,” said a statement from the California Solar & Storage Association.
“Utilities claim solar makes the energy bills of non-solar customers more expensive. But in reality, utility profits, infrastructure investment, transmission lines and paying for their bad planning and the fires they cause are what drives energy rates up. Californians are not fooled, and real equity champions know energy fairness is about making rooftop solar panels and batteries more — not less — affordable for working families and lower-income Californians.”
Still outstanding: a pending charge for all electricity consumers, solar and otherwise, to fairly cover those fixed costs. Expect more fireworks.
Source: Orange County Register
Be First to Comment