By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
What Happened: Controversial Kentucky House Bill (HB) 227 passed the House by four votes yesterday. Now the bill moves on to the Senate. It would
- Reduce the amount future Kentucky solar customers are paid under its net metering plan, based on
- A mythical cost shift from solar users to non-solar users (or, as I refer to it, the “lie that won’t die.”
SolarWakeup’s View: This damn thing again?
If you’ve been paying any attention to the broader solar news cycle, you’ve heard of Kentucky HB 227. It’s the latest attempt by utilities to kill an emerging solar industry before it can compete with their “God-given” (and state endorsed) monopoly.
What are utilities telling the legislators to get them to support this bill? It’s the old “cost-shift” nonsense—a zombie lie that utilities across the country are telling state legislators to scare them into voting for bills like this.
The argument goes like this: Retail-rate net metering, a program under which solar customers are reimbursed for the excess electricity they produce, pushes extra costs on to non-solar customers because solar customers aren’t paying for grid upkeep.
What the utilities don’t want you to notice, of course, is that solar customers also relieve congestion on the grid during peak production times, which saves strain on the transmission and distribution lines. So while they may not be paying for upkeep directly, solar production saves wear and tear, which ultimately saves the utility money in the form of repair costs.
You’re welcome.
I should note here that while there is a minor cost-shift, a study by the Lawrence Berkely National Laboratory indicates the shift only happens when a state passes the 10% mark for solar-electricity generation. You know how much solar Kentucky produces from solar?
0.05%, according to the latest numbers from the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Now I’m lousy at math, but that looks nothing like 10% to me. This bill is just a cash grab by utilities, whose only interest is keeping their profits high.
Here, have a Kentucky legislator demonstrating a complete lack of understanding of how solar works. Courtesy of the Associated Press:
“I don’t think anyone out there is forced to buy your excess inventory or excess product and pay you a price that will generate a profit for you. Yet that is what we are really doing,” said [Republican Representative] Jim Gooch, the nincompoop who sponsored the bill.
OK, I’ll admit it: The AP reporter did not call Gooch a nincompoop. But I know that’s what he meant.
Now, the legislation isn’t as bad as it was last week, when the geniuses in the Kentucky legislature were going to apply the new rules to current solar customers. They have now decided to grandfather them under the old rules for 25 years. Small victories, I guess.
The bill also ends the traditional practice of monthly netting and moves to instantaneous netting. Here, have the reaction to that little gem by Kentucky solar installers Matt Partymiller and Steve Ricketts of Solar Energy Solutions, courtesy of their Facebook page (edited only for grammar and clarity):
INSTANTANEOUS NET METERING, a poisoned pill buried in the revised legislation [that] was strongly objected to by many on both sides of the House means what you currently produce from your array while you are at work for use even a hour later or in the evening at 1:1 rates is not yours any more. What you produce is instantaneously netted against what you consume by the minute. The difference belongs to the utilities and is suddenly worth 70% less. Banking solar inside a day, for a cloudy day tomorrow, from month to month or from summer for winter use is dead. HB 227 has been a Trojan horse for this simple ‘end game’ legislative paragraph.
Raise your hand if you think the utilities will pass the savings they will receive under the new netting rules on to their non-solar customers (oh, put your hands down….you and I both know better)?
Fortunately, there’s one more chance to kill the the bill in the Kentucky Senate. So for all our Kentucky readers, get on the phones and tell your Senators and tell them this bill is bad for Kentucky.
There’s still time to show the rest of the country that Kentucky is ready to move beyond its coal-bound past and into a solar future. Let’s make sure that happens.
More
Kentucky House OKs Likely Less Credits for Solar Customers (AP)
Rural Kentuckians support solar (The Sentinel Echo)