{"id":138,"date":"2015-12-23T10:20:50","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T15:20:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/?p=138"},"modified":"2015-12-23T10:22:00","modified_gmt":"2015-12-23T15:22:00","slug":"california-utility-companies-proposed-new-fees-for-solar-customers-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/california-utility-companies-proposed-new-fees-for-solar-customers-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"California utility companies&#8217; proposed new fees for solar customers rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>California regulators recently rejected a proposal by state utility companies to raise fees and costs for new solar customers.<\/p>\n<p>The California Public Utilities Commission made a proposal that largely allows solar customers to continue to receive benefits from utilizing solar energy.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CPUC issues proposed <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NetEnergyMetering?src=hash\">#NetEnergyMetering<\/a> decision to ensure customers continue to benefit from going <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/solar?src=hash\">#solar<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oq7Y7KCUr0\">https:\/\/t.co\/oq7Y7KCUr0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; California PUC (@californiapuc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/californiapuc\/status\/676837150650843136\">December 15, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Solar companies applauded the developments, while utility companies are still pushing for more changes that would result in higher costs for solar customers.<\/p>\n<p>Southern California Edison and other utilities had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.desertsun.com\/story\/tech\/science\/energy\/2015\/12\/15\/key-solar-decision-cpuc-rejects-utility-proposals\/77362084\/\" title=\"lobbied to slash the rates at which solar customers are paid for the electricity they generate\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>lobbied to slash the rates at which solar customers are paid for the electricity they generate<\/strong><\/a> and also called for additional fees to solar customers. But the California Public Utilities Commission <a href=\"http:\/\/docs.cpuc.ca.gov\/PublishedDocs\/Published\/G000\/M156\/K501\/156501053.PDF\" title=\"proposed a successor program to the state's current Net Energy Metering (NEM) program\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>proposed a successor program to the state's current Net Energy Metering (NEM) program<\/strong><\/a> that does not include as many harsh changes to solar customers.<\/p>\n<h2>Two new fees for solar customers<\/h2>\n<p>While the proposal is largely considered a victory by solar energy advocates, it was not a complete victory for the solar community. Two new fees are included in the proposal that negatively affect new solar customers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A one-time interconnection fee, which is likely to be approximately $75-$150.<\/li>\n<li>Non-bypassable charges that will likely amount to approximately 2-3 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy consumed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;[Governor Jerry Brown]&#8217;s [Public Utilities Commission] is standing up for clean power and for customers by proposing to reject the utilities&#8217; attempts to make solar out of reach for customers.&#8221;<br \/>&#8212; CALSEIA Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro in a <a href=\"http:\/\/calseia.org\/press-releases\/2015\/12\/15\/brown-administrations-puc-proposes-to-reject-anti-solar-proposals-from-utilities\" title=\"statement\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>statement<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" width=\"550\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">State regulators reject steeper fees for solar users <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GIKAE9Uezn\">https:\/\/t.co\/GIKAE9Uezn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Mercury News (@mercnews) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/mercnews\/status\/676910123722346498\">December 15, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<span class=\"source-attribution\">Orginally published on &rarr; <a href=\"http:\/\/solarenergylocal.com\/news\/california-regulators-reject-steep-solar-fees-proposed-by-utilities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Solar Energy Local<\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The California Public Utilities Commission made a proposal that largely allows solar customers to continue to receive benefits from utilizing solar energy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":139,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utilitieslocal.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}