Power company to ding people with solar systems...

[klodhopper]

Seems that the greed goes on...Excel has proposed tacking on fees on people with grid-tie solar systems now...

Excel says that:

The monthly fee, which would pay for distribution and transmission of energy, would go into effect in April 2010 and would have to be paid to Xcel, regardless of whether the solar customer used any electricity that month. Customers who got solar panels before April 2010 would not have to pay the fee.

“We just don't think it's fair that customers that don't have solar panels on their homes should subsidize these solar panel customers any further,” said Henley.But when pressed, Henley admitted that currently, no Xcel electric customers pay extra to fund solar connectivity fees. In reality, Xcel absorbs those fees. The money from the proposed fee would not go into the pockets of electric customers, but would go back to Xcel.Henley said the fee is a preventative measure to ensure that, down the road, solar customers do not get free rides.

Solar Customers Fuming Over Proposed Fee - Denver News Story - KMGH Denver

[Tideland Prius]

That last line just made him lose his credibility.. "Henley said the fee is a preventative measure to ensure that, down the road, solar customers do not get free rides."


They're selling you excess electricity that YOU (the elec. company) require and without any start-up cost or having to build a new power plant. You know what? I think solar customers should keep the excess power and we'll see how the company feels.

[icarus]

Contact your state Public Utilities Commission and raise hell! This is just a money grab from the utility.

Icarus

[patsparks]

In South Australia it has been mandated that power companies will pay double for solar power to what the customer pays for power from the grid, and apart from the initial cost of solar instalation there is no cost to connect to the grid.

What is so hard?

[jayman]

Same thing in Ontario. Folks who actually believed the Dalton McGuinty Liberals wanted "green" power went out to invest their own money into solar power. Then got screwed by the Ontario government. Excellent and hard-hitting analysis from Fifth Estate

The Gospel of Green | CBC News: the fifth estate

Despite outright criminal fraud from massive cost overruns of nuclear power plants like Darlington (Original cost of about $5 bil soared to over $12 bil), the Ontario government then decided instead to close the coal plants and go nuclear

More recently, they decided nuclear would now cost too much. I really don't think Ontario has one clue how they are going to source the electricity they need

[icarus]

In spite of my previous post in this thread, I have changed my mind (sort of) after reading some learned posts on the same subject on my Solar Energy Forum: Got Solar Panels? Utility Wants To Charge You For Not Using Their Energy - Solar Electric Power Discussion Forum by Northern Arizona Wind & Sun

I do think the utility in this case is doing a money grab, but they are positioning themselves to keep up with costs as RE becomes more mainstream, and the cost(s) of energy and delivery gets more complicated.

Icarus

[jayman]

I think you can watch "Gospel of Green" directly from the CBC Fifth Estate website. They covered the bulls*** a Swiss immigrant farmer in Ontario went through trying to hook up the solar system on his farm to OPG.

He put an ungodly amount of money into the system to try to follow all the twists and steps OPG demanded, which apparently changed on a daily basis. AFAIK it still isn't hooked up

[hill]

Originally Posted by Tideland Prius

That last line just made him lose his credibility.. "Henley said the fee is a preventative measure to ensure that, down the road, solar customers do not get free rides."


They're selling you excess electricity that YOU (the elec. company) require and without any start-up cost or having to build a new power plant. You know what? I think solar customers should keep the excess power and we'll see how the company feels.

Amen my bratha ... the power companies forget that they don't have to buy the real estate ... fund more nukes, etc ... in addition to the fact that when solar is running it decreases the load on the grid ... when the grid most needs relief.

.

[FL_Prius_Driver]

This is actually a good thing in a twisted way. It provides the incentive for solar users to become 100% self sufficient so that the power utility has no affect on their lives.

[hill]

Not sure I understand ... by self sufficient, do you mean PV purchasers will build closer to the 'par' level of PV power? . . . or that PV purchasers will be more likely to add the cost of batteries ... going "off- grid". Building a battery backup (in order to be off grid) doubles your cost ... and you don't get solar initiave credits and tax credits ... which pays appx 50% of your costs. I don't see that scenerio happening. that's not enough spite value for your buck. And that's not even thinking how batteires ar a reoccuring cost.

.