California regulators appear poised to flip the switch on a major revision of the rules regulating rooftop solar.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is signaling they are ready to reveal the new proposal after their first attempt to rewrite the state’s Net Energy Metering rules was loudly condemned.
Regulators proposed mandatory monthly fees for solar owners, about $60 a month for the typical solar system.
The CPUC proposal also slashed the price of electricity that utilities were forced to buy from homeowners who generated extra power.
The new price for extra power was 80% below the retail price that current rules call for.
Solar industry backers called the rules a disaster.
They said California’s largest in the nation solar marketplace, more than 1.3 million rooftop solar systems, would stop expanding because the financial incentives would be gone.
The resulting slowdown in solar installations would endanger 67,000 jobs and make it impossible for California to meet its greenhouse gas emission goals.
After a month of withering criticism, the CPUC pulled the plan in January saying regulators were going to reexamine their proposed changes in an effort to reassess.
“It should have been done in less than a year and now we’ve been going on for two years,” said Brad Heavner of the California Solar and Storage Association. “So, it’s all quite strung out and hopefully it gets resolved at this point, finally and reasonably for all parties concerned.”
The first hint of movement came last Friday, when a judge working on the issue set a hearing on Nov. 16.
"They want, and they haven’t said this, (setting a hearing date) indicates that they want comment on perhaps a revised proposed decision,” said Kathy Fairbanks.
That gathering will give more than 30 groups who are parties to the proceeding time for oral arguments for their positions in front of the commissioners.
Heavner said that is the regulatory equivalent of presenting closing arguments at a trial.
That meeting also suggests new rules are about to be made public, because interested parties cannot give closing arguments if proposed changes remain under wraps.
The new proposal was widely expected to be unveiled after election day, but the CPUC has said nothing.
“We don’t know. No one really knows,” said Kathy Fairbanks, of the utility funded group Affordable Clean Energy For All.
Fairbanks said regulators have to protect utility customers who do not have rooftop solar. Her organization and the state’s investor-owned-utilities argue that rooftop solar owners don’t pay to maintain the grid, shifting those costs to non-solar customers.
“The CPUC rightfully keeps all of this very close to the vest,” Fairbanks said, “But the fact that they have announced oral arguments on Nov. 16 indicates that they want, and they haven’t said this, indicates that they want comment on perhaps a revised proposed decision.”
With election day passed, observers say they expect the new proposed decision to be made public at any time.
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We have updates on local and statewide races, as election results continue to roll in. Plus, a local artist is being honored in Washington D.C. this weekend for his portrait of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
