PA. Seeks to Reduce Energy Sales from Solar Power (Kochs using regs across US to halt solar growth)

[JPZenger]

Last edited Mon Aug 4, 2014, 03:19 PM - Edit history (3)

http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/health-science/item/71126-public-utility-commission-seeks-to-limit-solar-arrays-

The PA. Public Utility Commission (PUC) is a board appointed by the Governor to oversee electricity providers and other public utilities. Excerpts:

"The PUC is proposing limits to the amount of solar energy electric customers can produce and sell back to the grid. The proposed rule governs where solar panels can be placed, and caps energy production for households and businesses at 110 percent of the household's annual energy consumption.

The proposed regulations would affect customers who use "net-metering". That means the energy they produce at home is fed into the grid and counted against their total electricity costs. Utilities pay customers for any surpluses.

The solar industry opposes the proposed rules, saying they will make it more complicated for homeowners looking to invest in solar and limit solar installations in the state"

Apparently this rule was designed to deal with one guy who built a large solar array on a hillside away from his home and wanted to make the power company buy all of the power, even though only a fraction of the power was used by his home. The PUC is greatly over-reacting with a 110% limit, which would destroy the economic incentive to produce rooftop solar.

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Updated: More on this topic

http://www.alleghenyfront.org/story/stephen-lacey-pa-trying-dial-back-solar

"But solar advocates are worried this could place undue burdens on solar owners who might not be able to put a solar array on their roof, like a homeowner whose rooftop is covered in shade but who owns an adjacent field with plenty of sunlight.

The PUC also proposed a cap on the amount of credit customers can earn off their solar panels. The commission proposed net metering would be available for up to 110 percent of a solar user’s personal electric use. Other states have put re-imbursal caps on solar payback—Nevada's is 150 percent, while Minnesota’s is 125 percent. “This 110 percent is the lowest I’ve seen and I think the solar industry is worried that it puts solar at a disadvantage,” Lacey said.

Lacey said the Pennsylvania net metering rules are part of a wave of changes to solar policy being promoted by utilities and their allies, including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative and pro-business group. ALEC, which is supported in part by utilities, called solar users “free riders” on the grid, because they don’t pay for the hard costs associated with transporting electricity the way utilities do. The utility industry sees solar and other forms of “distributed” power as a disruptive force, Lacey says."

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/27/opinion/sunday/the-koch-attack-on-solar-energy.html?_r=0

"The Koch Attack on Solar Energy
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD of the NY Times

...the Kochs and other big polluters have been spending heavily to fight incentives for renewable energy, which have been adopted by most states. They particularly dislike state laws that allow homeowners with solar panels to sell power they don’t need back to electric utilities. So they’ve been pushing legislatures to impose a surtax on this increasingly popular practice, hoping to make installing solar panels on houses less attractive.

The coal producers’ motivation is clear: They see solar and wind energy as a long-term threat to their businesses. That might seem distant at the moment, when nearly 40 percent of the nation’s electricity is still generated by coal, and when less than 1 percent of power customers have solar arrays. But given new regulations on power-plant emissions of mercury and other pollutants, and the urgent need to reduce global warming emissions, the future clearly lies with renewable energy.

... the utilities have devised another arguement: Solar expansion, they claim, will actually hurt consumers. The Arizona Public Service Company, the state’s largest utility, funneled large sums through a Koch operative to a nonprofit group that ran an ad claiming net metering would hurt older people on fixed incomes by raising electric rates. The ad tried to link the requirement to President Obama. Another Koch ad likens the renewable-energy requirement to health care reform, the ultimate insult in that world. “Like Obamacare, it’s another government mandate we can’t afford,” the narrator says. "

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Much more about the Kochs and ALEC at a reply below.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Good. Glad they allow overproduction, 110% of actual annual use is actually quite generous.

There are ways a person or entity can become a net power producer, but there are safeguards in place to make sure it's done safely.

The grid is not designed for people to safely pump energy back into it without careful review of the capacity of existing distribution lines and an accounting of existing loads and distributed generation.

For a typical homeowner, 110% is a gift.

I hate when authors oversimplify matters and then make it look like it's a big deal.

[msongs]

2. coal is obsolete. time to fix the grid to accept rooftop generated solar surplusses. nt

[NYC_SKP]

3. No doubt, but it will take a lot of time and it will be fantastic.

And ratepayers will expect someone else to pay for it, and there will be pushback.

For states with a progressive governor, like California, it will move faster.

But people who don't understand will still gripe.

Someone has to pay for it and, just like health care for the uninsured, it will be all of us.

I think it's fair that PUCs allow utilities to share the cost with customers, but many customers are clueless with regards to the cost.

[JPZenger]

4. Koch Brothers & ALEC expand fight against solar energy

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/04/25/3430835/clean-energy-solar-koch-alec/

Excerpts:

"The Los Angeles Times has recently been reporting out a story about how the Koch brothers are trying to roll back these solar initiatives across the country:

“The Koch brothers, anti-tax activist Grover Norquist and some of the nation’s largest power companies have backed efforts in recent months to roll back state policies that favor green energy. The conservative luminaries have pushed campaigns in Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona, with the battle rapidly spreading to other states.”

ALEC, which has referred to homeowners with their own solar panels as “freeriders on the system,” is deeply involved in both combating renewable energy mandates and modeling legislation that targets net metering. Last year alone, ALEC pushed more than 70 bills in 37 states that would have impeded clean energy growth. While ALEC was highly unsuccessful at actually passing anti-clean energy bills it advanced at the state level last year, a new document obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy reveals the intensity that ALEC is bringing to 2014 in its anti-environmental efforts — which include not just stifling clean energy, but opposing EPA coal regulations related to public health, promoting the Keystone XL pipeline, and working toward industry-friendly fracking rules. "

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http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-solar-kochs-20140420-story.html#axzz2zZQ9z37Z&page=1

"The arguments over who benefits from net metering, meanwhile, are hotly disputed. Some studies, including one published recently by regulators in Vermont, conclude that solar customers bring enough benefits to a regional power supply to fully defray the cost of the incentive.

In Arizona, a major utility and a tangle of secret donors and operatives with ties to ALEC and the Kochs invested millions to persuade state regulators to impose a monthly fee of $50 to $100 on net-metering customers.

Two pro-business groups, at least one of which had previously reported receiving millions of dollars from the Koch brothers, formed the campaign's public face. Their activities were coordinated by GOP consultant Sean Noble and former Arizona House Speaker Kirk Adams, two early architects of the Koch network of nonprofits."