Panel agrees existing solar customers should pay old power rate

COURTESY

Representatives from NV Energy, the state Bureau of Consumer Protection and solar companies agreed in principle today that most existing rooftop solar customers should keep a prior, cheaper power rate.

The agreement is a first step toward possible legislation to shield customers who put up panels before Nevada hit a legislatively mandated cap on solar installations from a costlier rate structure implemented this year.

Those customers would be grandfathered under the old rate until 2035.

As a subcommittee of the governor’s New Energy Industry Task Force, the panel will vote on the proposed agreement next month. If approved, it would go to the full task force for consideration.

The task force could recommend it as a bill in the 2017 legislative session.

The issue emerged after the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada tripled a fixed fee and slashed the value of credits solar customers earn for sending excess electricity back to NV Energy under a program known as net metering.

Critics say the new rate structure, being phased in for existing customers over 12 years, should only apply to new rooftop solar customers.

The PUC argued that the old, lower rate structure unfairly shifted the cost of maintaining the power grid from solar customers to traditional ratepayers.

The governor last month asked the New Energy Task Force to consider whether the PUC erred by not grandfathering existing customers. The subcommittee was also asked to consider several other issues, including the value of excess energy credits.

The subcommittee will continue to discuss the other issues at its next meeting May 18.

In the meantime, parties on both sides continue to debate the extent of the cost shift from solar to traditional customers or whether it even exists.

A group backed by NV Energy has argued the average Southern Nevada rooftop solar customer gets what amounts to a subsidy of about $600 a year.

Solar advocates say that when other factors, such as reduced strain on the grid, are considered, rooftop panels actually benefit all ratepayers.

At today’s meeting, rooftop solar company SolarCity teased a report it plans to release in the next few weeks showing just that.

Preliminary results of the report, published in conjunction with the National Resources Defense Council, show a net benefit to all ratepayers of at least 2 cents for every kilowatt hour of rooftop solar electricity produced, a SolarCity representative said.