Dive Brief:
- Nevada regulators could decide today, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, whether to reconsider higher fixed fees on customers with solar panels, and whether or not to grandfather existing rooftop solar users into the old rates.
- Ahead of today's Public Utilities Commission of Nevada meeting, Tesla sent regulators a letter arguing higher fixed fees left consumers with less incentive to make changes to their energy consumption habits. Tesla is building its much-hyped Gigafactory in Nevada, where the company plans to produce its Powerwall battery packs.
- In December, the commission cut the retail remuneration rate to wholesale rate, created a separate rate class for solar customers and increased monthly fixed charges.
Dive Insight:
Nevada regulators could issue a decision today on whether to reconsider its new net metering rules and to grandfather in existing customers with solar panels. And Tesla is letting them know the higher fixed charges could stifle the shift towards a more responsive grid that provides customers with accurate price signal.
"This change to a higher fixed charge provides no incentive for customers to alter their energy consumption behavior to support the grid and lower overall costs, yet new distributed energy technologies such as energy storage and electric vehicles, amongst others, are making it easier than ever for customers to be active grid participants responding to price signals built into their rates," Diarmuid O'Connell, vice president of business development for Tesla Motors, wrote to the commission.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is also the chairman for SolarCity, which ceased operations in the the state along with Sunrun after the new net metering policy was approved in December.
The new rates increase the monthly charge for solar customers from $12.75 to $17.90 in the first year, then gradually boosting it to $38.51 at the end of five years. The net metering credit for present and future solar owners would fall from $0.11/kWh to $0.09/kWh in the first year and then continue to drop to $0.026/kWh in 2020.
In January, PUCN denied a request to stay the new charges, leading customers to file a class-action lawsuit against NV Energy. The state's Bureau of Consumer Protection and some lawmakers also asked the PUCN to reconsider the new rates, and a group of rooftop solar customers also filed a class action lawsuit against NV Energy.
The PUCN agreed to reconsider the new net metering policy, and, in a suprised twist, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway-owned NV Energy proposed in January to grandfather the existing distributed solar users into the previous rates they were under for the next 20 years.
A PUCN commissioner unveiled a new draft proposal earlier this week that didn't grandfather in existing rooftop solar users into the old rates, but increased the timeline to gradually implement the the new rates and fixed charges.
