The proposed fees can cost the average solar energy owner more than $ 700 a year. Critics call the rates an attempt to take consumer control over their energy bills.
Dominion Energy South Carolina proposed a series of fees and fee changes that, if approved, would add hundreds of dollars to the annual bills of solar homeowners and could send shock waves through the state’s residential solar industry.
The proposed fees include raising the basic service charge for solar energy customers to $ 19.50 a month. Non-solar customers pay $ 9 a month. The concessionaire also proposed a “solar subscription fee”, which would add a monthly cost of $ 5.40 / kW. The charge would cost the average solar consumer, assuming an installation of 8 kW $ 43.20 per month.
Combined, the two charges can cost the average homeowner more than $ 750 a year.
Outside of the new rates, Dominion is also looking to reduce the solar export credit that its customers can receive. Credit currently compensates customers at a dollar-for-dollar rate. The proposed fees will be heard by state regulators of public services.
Suffocating the solar market
Kate Lee Mixson, a lawyer at the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), condemned the proposed changes, calling them an attempt to “keep customers tied to Dominion’s rising rates and remove an affordable option for customers to better control their energy bills. and your family budgets. ”
SELC also drew attention to the proposed changes for ignoring the intention of the 2019 Energy Freedom Act in South Carolina, an opinion shared by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).
The law requires utilities to present successive plans for net metering that avoid cost changes and provide long-term stability for solar customers. Both SECL and SEIA argue that by adding network access fees, a monthly subscription cost and a low export fee for net metering customers, Dominion is inflating solar energy costs and discouraging investment in the resource.
In a statement, Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s vice president for state affairs, said:
“Dominion’s action would end the roof solar market in its service territory in South Carolina, imposing blatant fees on solar customers.” Gallagher said the Energy Freedom Act was enacted to protect customer choice and add stability to the growing solar panel market. Dominion’s actions are “punitive and would undermine the intent of the law if approved by the Commission,” said Gallagher. “The proposed rates are so high that they would suffocate the local solar market.”
Jobs in limbo?
SEIA said the proposed changes would affect more than just the owners. Decreasing the viability of residential solar can mean the loss of hundreds of jobs for installers across the state. In 2019, there were about 4,000 jobs in the solar industry in South Carolina.
SELC claims that the new fees and discounted compensation fees are a way for Dominion to recover some funds from the dealer’s South Carolina Energy & Gas purchase last year. This company was known as SCANA when it was involved in a construction project for a scrapped nuclear power plant that left it financially vulnerable.
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