Utility, solar industry negotiate tariff deadline
San Diego Gas & Electric agreed Wednesday to negotiations with rooftop solar providers to resolve what happens if the current solar tariff expires before new rules are finalized next year by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The rooftop solar industry fears its business could drop off suddenly without some kind of extension to the current solar tariff, which it says could expire as soon as January. San Diego Gas & Electric says the current tariff, known as net energy metering, unfairly heaps costs for maintaining the grid onto nonsolar customers, and has so far resisted appeals to extend the current tariff temporarily.
The standoff came to a head at a public forum in San Diego, moderated by state Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, and utilities commission President Michael Picker.
Picker said the utilities commission intends to approve a new solar metering tariff by January, but acknowledged that a variety of delays were possible that could stretch on for weeks or months.
He repeatedly urged SDG&E representatives to provide some kind of voluntary solution to bridge a possible gap between tariffs.
“I’m pressing you for some kind of voluntary commitment, I’m saying work with us,” Picker said.
SDG&E offered no new concessions, but said it would sit down to talks with members of the California Solar Energy Industries Association and a staff representative from the utilities commission.
“I’m very concerned about the aspects of fairness for all customers,” SDG&E executive Caroline Winn told Picker. “We continue to burden those customers, those 95 percent of customers” that don’t have solar.
The forum took place in San Diego City Council Chambers. The room overflowed with hundreds of people, mostly from the solar industry.
Of the state’s three big investor-owned utilities, only SDG&E is at all likely to come close to the cap on rooftop solar before new rules are in place. The cap is reached once solar energy production accounts for 5 percent of local peak energy demands.
SDG&E estimates that the cap may be reached by July 2016 or later. The solar industry estimates it is likely to happen in April, and possibly as soon as January, already making it difficult for prospective customers to estimate future savings from going solar.
More than 60,000 utility customers in SDG&E territory now produce their own solar energy, and can hold on to the current tariff for an initial 20 years of service.
The current tariff credits rooftop solar customers at the full retail rate for the electricity they produce.
