More and more
utilities charge customers for paper bills, treating a once basic service as a value - added luxury.
Whether or not you'll save more money by installing a solar - plus - storage system depends how your electric
utility charges its customers.
Not exact matches
A four - page bill signed by the state's governor declares that the installation of energy storage by
utility customers is in the public interest, and prohibits discriminatory
charges or regulatory burdens from interfering with this.
Pipeline owners led by Enbridge Inc. and Williams Cos. could be forced to refund as much as $ 18.5 billion to drillers,
utilities and even United Airlines Inc. for upfront payments they
charged customers before new U.S. tax rules cut the corporate rate.
As we noted in a previous report, a proposal to the New York Public Service Commission has been submitted by Orange and Rockland
Utilities for a Tesla Powerpack system that could see a 70 % reduction in the demand
charges on
customer electricity bills.
The threat, often referred to as the «
utility death spiral,» goes like this: as
customers choose to install solar panels or adopt energy efficiency measures, a
utility will sell fewer units of energy and has to increase what it
charges for electricity to ensure that it can still cover its fixed costs, such as grid maintenance and labor.
To ensure that companies don't gouge
customers, local
utility boards set the rates that companies can
charge.
Utility customers throughout the state began paying in April through extra
charges on their monthly bills.
While a single press release does not a campaign make, Amedore's
charge that the reconfiguration of
utility capacity zones which went into effect May 1 could cost mid-Hudson
customers $ 300 million over the next three years got my attention.
; compliance with the standard will necessitate major changes to the electrical grid, which will separately drive up
customer delivery
charges as
utilities are forced to accommodate intermittent generation from solar panels and wind turbines.
The Cuomo administration estimates the Clean Energy Standard, chiefly its nuclear subsidies, will add an average of $ 2 to residential electric bills, although the Empire Center calculated the standard would hike the average residential bill by more than $ 2.09 in 2018 and by $ 3.40 in 2021 from added supply costs alone; compliance with the standard will necessitate major changes to the electrical grid, which will separately drive up
customer delivery
charges as
utilities are forced to accommodate intermittent generation from solar panels and wind turbines.
While several states have allowed
utilities to
charge a fee to
customers who want to opt out of smart meters, Vermont's governor is expected soon to sign legislation that would allow
customers to say no without paying anything extra.
Utilities in states with growing levels of solar have argued that fixed fees and other changes are needed because
customers with net metering bill credits don't pay their fair share of transmission and distribution
charges.
«Set it and forget it» a popular option Oncor's smart grid meter will cover $ 800 million, paid for by a $ 2.19 monthly
charge on
customers»
utility bills that regulators approved.
At the same time, he added, the government's feed - in tariff, the costs of which are shared by the government and electricity
customers, has resulted in «more and more consumers hav [ing] to pay higher electricity
charges to
utilities.»
With a Department of Energy grant awarded to General Motors, Bill Boyce, supervisor for electric transportation with the Sacramento Municipal
Utility District, said his utility modeled a few electric vehicle pricing schemes and found they were able to manage the impact of charging on the grid by educating their customers on the best time to
Utility District, said his
utility modeled a few electric vehicle pricing schemes and found they were able to manage the impact of charging on the grid by educating their customers on the best time to
utility modeled a few electric vehicle pricing schemes and found they were able to manage the impact of
charging on the grid by educating their
customers on the best time to
charge.
Regulated
utilities then
charge customers a fee for use proportional to their energy consumption.
The state's three investor - owned
utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric, initially argued for fixed
charges for solar
customers, but in the last month authored a new proposal that would preserve net metering but reduce the rate at which solar
customers are compensated for the power they export.
American Electric is not the first
utility owner to seek regulatory consent to
charge customers for a big wind project.
Minimum Delivery
Charge: This is a charge that some utilities require solar customers to pay to support the cost of maintaining and upgrading the
Charge: This is a
charge that some utilities require solar customers to pay to support the cost of maintaining and upgrading the
charge that some
utilities require solar
customers to pay to support the cost of maintaining and upgrading the grid.
The commission signaled last month that it was prepared to preserve net metering in its current form, but details like additional
charges for
utility transmission lines and a requirement that solar
customers move to time - based rates could undermine the technology's cost - competitiveness.
They also show how the local
utility company calculates a
customer's electricity
charges, which can have important design implications.
(The Senate's language banning
utilities from investing in new pipelines and then
charging electric
customers for these investments did not make it into the compromise energy bill.)
For commercial
customers, whose
utility bills include demand
charges, the benefits of using Green Button data in the solar design process are a little more nuanced, so we will cover them in a later post.
There is a lot of public debate around the rates
utilities charge solar
customers, but very little of it shows an awareness of the embedded technical and philosophical issues.
As a solar professional, if you want to accurately communicate the value that a solar installation will provide to a commercial
customer, it is critical to understand demand
charges and how they affect your client's
utility bill.
Customers learned their lessons with smart meters: cool technology that benefits
utilities tends to raise rates, provides negligible access to
customer data, and enables
customer - unfriendly services (demand
charges and dynamic TOU rates).
Oil - backed groups led by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) proposed a resolution that opposed state efforts to subsidize non-gas vehicles and allow
utilities to
charge customers for — or «ratebase» — EV
charging stations.
Further growth of Nevada's distributed PV sector, however, is uncertain because Nevada's Public
Utility Commission recently approved several changes to the net - metering tariffs, including phasing in lower net - metering compensation rates and higher monthly fixed
charges for distributed PV
customers.
The
utility industry nationwide, not just in Connecticut, has long argued that, because of the revenue they lose from solar
customers who only draw power from the grid part of the time — chiefly at night — they have to
charge non-solar
customers more to maintain the grid.
Also, in certain states — like California — and local markets as
utilities change how they
charge customers for energy use, the energy storage systems can provide additional opportunities to save money.
The
utility set the date to draw a line between current net - metering
customers, whom Rocky Mountain Power plans to grandfather into the old rate structure permanently, and new
customers who would be
charged according to the new rate schedule.
However, higher fixed
charges are an inequitable and inefficient means to address
utility revenue concerns: they reduce
customer control, disproportionately impact low - usage and low - income
customers, dilute incentives for energy efficiency and distributed generation, and increase electric system costs.
In 2016 the Public
Utilities Commission extended the requirement that investor owned utilities offer net metering to their customers albeit with some new requirements and the imposition of non by - passable charges on excess solar power credited
Utilities Commission extended the requirement that investor owned
utilities offer net metering to their customers albeit with some new requirements and the imposition of non by - passable charges on excess solar power credited
utilities offer net metering to their
customers albeit with some new requirements and the imposition of non by - passable
charges on excess solar power credited to bills.
If that were the full story of
utility billing, it would be enough to know the total amount of energy the
customer used each month - but in many cases,
utilities also
charge different prices for electricity depending on when it is consumed.
Considered a top state for solar energy potential — and home to a robust rooftop solar sector — Arizona's current net metering policy debates started in 2013, when
utility Arizona Public Service sparked controversy with a fee proposal for rooftop solar
customers that regulators ultimately scaled back to a $ 5 grid access
charge.
Residential
customers did get a 20 percent rate cut under the deregulation act, which saved
customers of ComEd, Exelon's grid -
utility arm, $ 4.27 billion dollars from 1998 to 2006, while ComEd recouped just $ 1.2 billion in transition
charges.
In response, there has been a disturbing trend around the country of
utilities proposing to simply raise monthly «fixed
charges,» or the
charges we pay to the
utility just for being a
customer.
The point of Milton Friedman's arguments against public
utility commission law was to prevent forcing
customers to commit to funding the cost of investment over 40 to 50 years in mandatory rate base
charges.
Now more than ever, these state regulators are
charged with looking out for the best interests of
utility customers in states that have regulated electric and other
utilities.
Wi - Fi - enabled «smart» EV chargers or those separately metered can provide the
utility with information about how
customers use electricity specifically for
charging EVs, including when and for how long.
It is common practice for
utilities to
charge customers a connection fee to access electricity for the first time.
But whereas
customers who have solar panels one their own roof get credited at full retail value and own the associated renewable energy credits, HB 618 allows the SCC to devise rules that could result in a much worse deal for solar garden subscribers, including allowing the
utility to impose a «reasonable
charge» to cover ill - defined costs.
California's three big
utilities are shifting to time - of - use rates for residential
customers — meaning ratepayers will be
charged more for electricity when it is more valuable.
AEP Ohio's proposal to increase fixed
charges would hurt low - income
customers, the same people this powerful electric
utility pretends to represent when it attacks clean energy policies, and fits into the company's long record of poor treatment of its most...
Utilities would not be able to
charge the average residential
customer more than $ 2 per month to recover costs.
d. «Green Energy» pricing in 25 states, which permit distribution
utilities to
charge a premium prices for electricity from «renewable» sources when a
customers volunteers to do so.
If your
utility has demand
charges for residential
customers, you'll be
charged a fee that changes depending on how much electricity you use.
While demand
charges are more common for commercial
customers with big electricity bills, some states and
utilities are considering the addition of demand
charges to their electricity rates to motivate people to reduce their electricity use.
Craven said that he hoped recent problems in California, where the company successfully campaigned to have grid interconnection
charges levied on its
customers installing storage lifted, would not be repeated elsewhere and described storage as an «opportunity» for
utilities to rethink their business model in the wake of disruptive challenges from solar and other renewable technologies.