Nevada Regulators Refuse to Back Down On Rate Changes for Rooftop Solar

At the meeting, the solar companies predict hundreds of customers, employees and activists will offer public comments urging the Public Utilities Commission to ease the revised solar rates.

But after hours of public testimony, PUC Chairman Paul Thomsen said he was offended by witnesses who suggested the panel did not know what it was doing when it adopted the new rate.

Solar power is becoming so popular that New Hampshire needs to redesign its pricing system for electricity generation to avoid harming other customers – but until that happens, easing limits on how much solar power is sold back to utilities will help keep the industry operating in the state.

Solar advocates have also accused the energy commission of coordinating with utility company lobbyists.

Speaker after speaker criticized the panel for its decision, as well as Gov. Brian Sandoval and members of the Legislature, for failing in the 2015 session to exercise leadership on the net metering issue. The results from the Census are based on rigorous survey efforts that include 287,962 telephone calls and over 44,220 emails to known and potential energy establishments across the United States, resulting in a total of 2,350 full completions for solar establishments in the U.S. The sampling rigor in the known and unknown universes provides a margin of error for establishment counts at ±0.85% and employment at ±1.99% at a 95% confidence interval.

Around 1,000 solar customers and solar workers protested against the net metering changes in Las Vegas yesterday. According to PUC documents, “the Nevada Legislature passed SB 374, directing the PUC to examine the rates applicable to net metering customers and to identify and eliminate any unreasonable shifts in costs from net metering customers to other customers”.

Installations made after the cap is reached would have to accept net metering payments at whatever rates the PUC decides on. Unfavorable changes to the net metering policy have contributed to a decline of 16% in SolarCity stock since the initial proposal last month.

The letter argued any “failure to (reconsider the decision) would quickly curtail solar deployment in Nevada by unnecessarily disrupting customer and investor expectations and send the message that Nevada is not willing to partner with the investor community to meet its clean energy and climate goals, and may even discourage broader private investment in the state”.

On several occasions, commenters criticized Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns NV Energy.

“These jobs can be lost if you have a person who doesn’t look at the future and only looks at supporting the monopolies of the utilities”, Rive said.

James Collier of Henderson said he signed a legal contract with NV Energy with a set credit for excess electricity.

NV Energy estimates it has about 17,000 net-metering customers.

In the ABC interview, Governor Sandoval says: “I’m not taking sides in this case”. “There no longer is a limit on the amount of solar that customers can put on their roof”.

In addition to the new monthly fee, which will increase to $40 from $12 over the next five years, customers like Stewart will get less back from the utility for energy their solar panels capture and feed into the main power grid.

SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ:SCTY) announced it will cut 550 jobs in the state of Nevada.

There are 14,832 interconnected net metering customers at Nevada Power Co.in Southern Nevada, and 2,423 customers with Sierra Pacific in Northern Nevada.

About The Alliance for Solar ChoiceThe Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC) leads the rooftop solar advocacy across the country.

Because of the rate changes, solar installers have laid off more than 1,000 workers in Nevada since the first of the year.

Noble cited mischaracterizations of the order in media reports, “almost exclusively… from quotes and sourced information from SolarCity and Sunrun representatives”.