Hello, fellow solar enthusiasts! With the growing popularity of solar panels for your home, it’s so important to keep an eye on industry updates. Our focus today is quite central – we’re talking about a recent decision by the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC). This is a situation that I believe solar companies and anyone with a solar array for home should be aware of.
In a surprising move, the ACC approved a request from a significant utility company in Arizona to raise electricity rates for all customers. Now, this isn’t your typical case – they didn’t just stop at an across-the-board rate hike. No, they took it a step further and laid on additional charges specifically targeted at customers who’ve chosen to invest in rooftop solar.
Here’s where it gets interesting: Commission Chair Jim O’Connor, along with three Republican ACC members, approved this rate plan without fully understanding its overall impact on customers’ bills. Promised is a rough bill increase of 8%, surpassing inflation by a significant margin.
Now, if you’re procuring electricity traditionally, you can anticipate your monthly bill to go up by about $10 to $12. However, for those with a rooftop solar system, it’s a different ballgame entirely. You should prepare for your bills to increase by as much as $15 a month. To put this in context, it’s important to remember that last summer, Arizona reduced its rooftop solar export rates, or net metering rates, by 10%.
What’s noteworthy, even sobering, is that the full impact of this rate hike has not even been entirely gauged by the ACC. The Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education Fund has encouraged the commission to reconsider the approval and advocate for more transparency from the utility company.
This new rate structure is causing an uproar among solar companies as well. Michael O’Donnell, the vice president of Arizona-based solar installer Sunsolar Solutions, explained that under the new rate structure, solar customers who already pay an average of $80 per month to connect to the grid can expect this cost to increase to around $120 monthly. The unsettling part? This applies even to customers generating 100% of their electricity from rooftop arrays.
Although Arizona boasts an abundance of sunlight, steadily escalating rates and high electricity demand due to air conditioning usage, it sadly doesn’t hold the title as a prime rooftop solar market. Export rates are discouragingly low, and the ACC has sanctioned numerous cut-backs and reductions on solar customers.
The new charges will retroactively impact customers who already have rooftop solar and have agreed on a net metering deal with the utility company. From a wider perspective, this negatively impacts the broader objective of encouraging energy independence, bill stability, and carbon emission reduction by undermining the consumer confidence in the stability of solar as a worthwhile investment.
To justify these discriminatory charges on rooftop solar users, the utility company has cited the need for transmission upgrades and “cost-shift issues”. However, national labs and state groups have debunked claims of a significant cost-shift, giving us food for thought.
In conclusion, solar companies and individuals investing in solar panels for your home need to stay aware, question, and participate in these developments. We need to foster an atmosphere that encourages rather than penalizes solar adoption. In the end, the industry’s progress hinges on our collective persistence. On that note, stay sunny, green, and question everything!
Original Articlehttps://pv-magazine-usa.com/2024/02/26/arizona-approves-discriminatory-charge-on-rooftop-solar-customers/
