Update on Exit Fees for Distributed Renewable Energy Systems

Below is an update from Tor Allen, of the Rahus Institute, on the issue facing the CPUC regarding exit fees for distributed renewable energy systems. It shows how important participation in the CPUC process is.

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Greetings,
Thanks to CCEnergy, VoteSolar, NextGeneration/CalSeia, and others for providing updates on the Exit Fee issue. Your letters, e-mails, and faxes seem to be making a difference. Thanks for your participation.

Tor Allen

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From Dan Pelligrini of CC Energy

1) The CPUC had a hearing on Thursday, Feb 27. Solar advocates were there in force, and 20 persons were allowed to testify in front of the commission. All who testified were strongly in favor of solar energy and exemptions from "exit fees" for all solar energy. It was truly powerful and inspiring to hear statements of support from a wide spectrum of people from industry insiders to regular folks who are installing PV systems for their own homes. At the end of testimony, the commissioners were visibly moved and a couple of them made statements of their own in support of our position, and Loretta Lynch indicated that she was planning to modify her alternate decision to provide the blanket exemption that were are seeking.

2) Commissioner President Michael Peevey has issued an alternate decision that provides a blanket exemption for all on-site renewable energy systems. This can be found at: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/published/comment_decision/23960.htm
The orders, on page 56 of the decision, can be found at: http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/published/comment_decision/23960-09.htm#P437_102729

The relevant language is:

Customer generation departing load that is under 1 MW in size and either a) eligible for net metering or b) eligible for financial incentives from the CPUC's self-generation program or from the CEC, are not required to pay any Cost Responsibility Surcharge (CRS), including the Department of Water Resources (DWR) bond charge, DWR ongoing power charges, utility historic procurement charges (HPC), and the "tail" competition transition charge (CTC).

From Doug Linney of Next Generation

Things went extremely well at the Public Utilities Commission today [Feb. 27] although the exit fees issue was not formally taken up at today's meeting, public comments were accepted at the beginning of the meeting. Commissioner Brown opened the session by saying that "we've gotten the message" referring to all the people contacting the commissioners on this matter. About 18 people spoke in favor of a blanket exemption for solar on exit fees - representing a spectrum including solar business, labor (IBEW), individual homeowners, environmental interests (Union of Concerned Scientists, Sierra Club, Vote Solar), and non-solar businesses (Qualcomm, San Diego Chamber of Commerce). A big thanks to everyone who could make it and spoke. People did a great job covering all different aspects and arguments on the issue without a lot of repetition, which I'm sure the board appreciated.

And thanks to everyone who has been part of the letter and e-mail campaign. The commissioners indicated they have received thousands of emails and have "gotten the message". Lynch said their servers have literally gone down once or twice with the overload. Commissioner Lynch said she is the process of modifying her proposed decision and exclaimed that getting all the e-mail "has been a great experience" and to "keep the emails coming, I'm learning a lot from them." Indeed all of the commissioners seemed to appreciate the input.

From David Hochschild of Vote Solar

...The response has been overwhelming. The PUC has now received over 7,000 emails on the subject, their server has had to shut down several times and the Public Advisor told us she has never seen so great a public response on any issue they have dealt with.

They’re getting the message. Californians want solar energy to be encouraged, not penalized. All five of the PUC commissioners now seem supportive to the idea of protecting solar energy from these fees and, as a direct result of your emails, two new alternate proposals have been introduced that would exempt solar energy from exit fees. The final vote is scheduled for March 13th (http://www.votesolar.org/exitfees.html).

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