The ongoing dispute over distributed solar energy generation and its disruption to utilities’ struggling business plans in the US continues with a utility in Utah considering a monthly solar fee.
PacifiCorp’s Utah utility, Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) has proposed a monthly charge for solar customers.
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A monthly fee of US$4.25 has been proposed for residential net metering “to help pay some of the fixed costs of supplying and receiving electricity”, according to RMP’s website.
To encourage solar generation, RMP also has an installation rebate for all solar customers. The Utah Solar Incentive Programme (USIP) is an incentive from US$0.75 to US$1.20 per Watt installed.
Charges targeting solar customers are one of many attempts in the US for utilities to gain extra service and maintenance fees from clean energy producers. Most recently utility Arizona Public Services (APS) imposed fees of around US$4.90 a month on solar customers.
The changes in net metering fees and proposed solar tax models across the US has been attributed to The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an association for conservative law makers, that proposed a template anti-net metering policy in 2013.
The dispute between solar customers and utilities was further compelled last month as Barclays bank downgraded the US utility bond market – a strong indication that solar PV-generated power coupled with storage presents a long-term disruptive risk to utilities.
According to the annual ranking published by industry body Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA), America’s utilities were responsible for 82% of new solar capacity in 2013, up from 72% the year before.
Executive Director of Utah Clean Energy, a non-profit renewables advocator, Sarah Wright testified against the proposed charge, asking for further analysis of the benefits of solar. “No net metering charge should be implemented without consideration of a full cost/benefit analysis across all customer classes,” she sad.
The state of Minnesota recently set a precedent as the state’s Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved the US’s first methodology for calculating the value of consumer-generated solar energy.
The US solar group, The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) spoke out against the Value of Solar Tariffs (VOSTs) being used in other states, a spokeswomen told PV Tech “VOSTs give utilities control and impose taxes on solar customers.”
But the practice of analysing distributed generation “is not necessarily something we oppose. And, we don't disagree with Utah Clean Energy. A transparent analysis on the benefits of solar is a good thing.”
The proposed fee is still being reviewed by Utah’s Public Service Commission. RMP’s projected overall average price increase rate for 2015 is 3%.