Dive Summary:

• Xcel Energy has called for an open debate to examine the costs and benefits of distributed solar and the net-metering in Colorado requiring utilities to pay customers for electricity passed back to the grid.
• Recently, the utility filed for a reduction in net-metering, sparking a feud with Colorado solar companies. In response, Xcel is cobbling together data to counter solar pundits’ most fundamental claims.
• “We determined that rooftop solar does not avoid investments in transmission and distribution, in part because we still have to serve part of the load and in part because the peaks are different,” said Xcel Energy VP Karen Hyde.

From the article:

“When residential solar owners get the $0.104 per kilowatt-hour retail rate for the electricity their systems send to the grid, Hyde said, that benefit is approximately $0.059 per kilowatt hour more than the benefit solar adds, and it is paid for by non-solar owning customers.”