Only rarely does the California Public Utilities Commission, long known as the state government’s agency least responsive to consumer concerns, return to the drawing board once it comes up with a “solution.” to the problem.
This is partly because when the Public Utilities Commission (the PUC) comes up with ideas, they are essentially pitching them to themselves; the five commissioners responsible for proposing ideas are also those who have the votes to impose them on each Californian concerned.
So the new rooftop solar rules proposed by the commission in November are highly unusual: an almost entirely reworked proposal that hopes to keep the expansion of rooftop energy going, but also bring more fairness to electricity consumers. unable to pay for solar power on rooftops or living in apartments, condominiums and other places that are not suitable for them.
The originally proposed new rules, proposed in late 2021, aimed to reduce payments to solar rooftop owners by 80% for excess electricity generated by their panels that is sent to the state’s overall power grid, and thus increases renewable energy supply for everyone. They also aimed to charge solar rooftop owners a fee of around $60 per month for grid connection, which allows them to draw power when solar-linked storage batteries run out.
Since most solar rooftop owners pay upwards of $20,000 for panels and installation to avoid monthly utility bills, this plan promised to significantly reduce installations. It would put about 67,000 installer and fabricator jobs at risk, while slowing California’s march to 100% renewable electricity.
Consumer groups and solar rooftop owners howled. Soon Governor Gavin Newsom, who appoints PUC members to staggered six-year terms but cannot fire them once they are confirmed by the state Senate, joined the chorus.
So, in a virtually unprecedented move, the commissioners pulled their plan from the brink of adoption, promising to create a revised proposal.
The new plan would still reduce what solar homeowners are paid for excess power, but not by as much. It’s their sop to advocates for utility customers unable to afford or install rooftop solar panels. The new rules would mainly apply to new owners of rooftop solar panels.
Some advocates for homeless electric customers have complained about paying monthly to maintain the state grid, while solar power owners who connect to that grid for emergency use don’t contribute to that cost.
At the same time, the new plan eliminates the proposed monthly fee of $60.
So it’s a compromise. It doesn’t make anyone very happy, but was fair enough to avoid the kind of scathing criticism that caused Newsom to oppose the previous proposal.
The new plan’s exact reduction of what each solar homeowner can get for excess electricity will be based on the state’s “avoided cost” calculator, which calculates how much solar homeowners save on utility bills each month.
Rooftop solar advocates, like the Oakland-based Center for Biological Diversity, admit the new plan is an improvement, but oppose reductions in electricity prices paid to homeowners.
The avoided cost calculator, he says, “ignores many of the benefits of (returning solar to the grid)…such as (improved) grid reliability, reduced greenhouse gases and pollution air and local economic benefits, including job creation”.
This will probably not convince the commissioners, who seem determined to impose their new plan at a meeting scheduled for December 16.
And yet, the new plan is the first sign in many years that the PUC can sometimes listen to consumers, rather than just utility companies. The commission has been widely criticized for more than 50 years for favoring companies like Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric over their customers.
This time, with these three companies firmly behind the original version of the new rooftop solar rules, as it would have eliminated their payments to small solar homeowners, the PUC has bowed a bit to a specific group of consumers, residential solar homeowners. .
This still leaves the PUC far from looking after the interests of most utility customers, as the new responsiveness primarily benefits a group with above-average wealth.
This makes the new solar metering plan an improvement, but does not alleviate the serious doubts about the responsiveness of the commission.
Email Thomas Elias at [email protected].