By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
Ah, Kansas, why did you go and have to be the exception?
The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) (which regulates its utilities) decided last week to grant the proposals made by the state’s two largest utilities – Westar Energy and Kansas City Power & Light to lower utility bills for everyone in their service areas except solar users.
For some reason, the KCC decided it would allow solar users to be penalized for generating their own electricity by hitting them with a demand charge that could cost solar users anywhere between $27 and $36 a month, according to calculations by the Wichita Eagle.
When we originally wrote about this last month, we had hoped Kansas would continue the trend shown by so many other regulatory bodies, in finding demand charges to be too confusing for average customers to understand. And in the case of Westar, we were also hoping the KCC would reject the ridiculous zombie lie that solar users don’t pay their fair share of grid upkeep, which reared its ugly head again in the Westar argument.
This is the “cost shift” argument which, for those of you who have not followed our work on this before, plays out thusly:
As we’ve discussed ad nauseum, the solar “cost shift” doesn’t happen until at least 10% of a state’s electricity comes from solar power, something that is occurring in only five states. That leaves 45 states where the cost-shift is a flat-out lie, and in the five remaining states, the “cost shift” is fractions of a penny per kilowatt-hour.
But unfortunately, the KCC allowed the wool to be pulled over its eyes. In its ruling, it wrote (again quoting the Wichita Eagle):
“The Commission finds that, in Westar’s case, under the two-part rate design for (solar) customers currently in place, the (solar) customers are receiving a preferential rate,” the commission said in its order approving the settlement.
Ugh, for the last time, SOLAR USERS AREN’T GETTING PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. That’s a lie. It’s nonsense. And you on the KCC should have been smart enough to recognize it as such.
It’s so disappointing to see a misguided ruling such as this because it will essentially strangle Kansas’ budding solar industry before it even gets to take its first breath – and that’s a damn shame.
More:
New Westar Energy rates will benefit average customer but not solar power users
Proposed Kansas Demand Fees Could Bring Solar Installations To A Screeching Halt