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“Without the ability to connect to the grid with net metering, every company is just done and literally with no notice, like they caught everyone completely off guard.”

Catellier said he — along with 56 other solar companies in Saskatchewan — only found out the program was close to hitting its cap on Wednesday through a conference call with SaskPower.

“We have no date or timeline in terms of when they’re going to have another policy. We were told possibly next spring,” said Catellier.

While he has enough work already lined up to carry the company for a few weeks, Catellier said he will be looking at cutting around 80 per cent of his 30 employees and that most of the province’s solar companies are in the same boat.

“We need government to step up here and intervene on behalf of about 800 jobs in Saskatchewan because if they don’t have an interim program, within a couple of months most of these companies will have laid off most of their employees, if they haven’t shut their doors completely,” he said.

While he understands the need to eliminate the rebate if the program is going over-budget, Catellier said he wants SaskPower to still allow people to access its grid.

Photo by Miguel Catellier / Submitted

SaskPower spokesperson Joel Cherry said if the Net Metering program continued to run as it is, it would cost an estimated $54 million per year by 2025. Even if the program dropped the rebate, SaskPower would still be losing money.

Cherry said people generating their own power and using the program are “not paying their share really for the overall maintenance of the provincial grid,” even though they are connected to it. He also noted that these small-scale installations are less cost-efficient for SaskPower than large-scale operations like a solar farm.