The California Public Utilities Price (CPUC) on Monday rejected a proposal from photograph voltaic advocacy groups that may assist neighborhood photograph voltaic throughout the state, instead putting further decision-making power into native utility arms.
“It’s a very important misstep in a string of head-scratching CPUC decisions which may be crushing California’s clear energy progress and stopping lots of of households from accessing the benefits of photograph voltaic energy,” said Stephanie Doyle, California State Affairs Director for the Picture voltaic Energy Industries Affiliation (SEIA). “The state legislature made it clear in passing AB 2316 that it wants a powerful program to supply neighborhood photograph voltaic to low-income Californians and to assist grid resilience for all ratepayers. This proposed alternative, if adopted, will harm these efforts and hazard California missing out on important federal funding by approving a utility-backed numerous that is unlikely to be commercially viable.”
AB 2316, signed into regulation in September 2022, requires big utilities serving higher than 100,000 purchasers to create and implement packages that “enable ratepayers to participate straight in offsite electrical period companies that use eligible renewable energy sources,” akin to neighborhood photograph voltaic. The Coalition for Group Picture Voltaic Entry (CCSA) proposed to the charge an Web Value Billing Tariff (NVBT) that may compensate subscribers to neighborhood photograph voltaic initiatives based totally on the value of a problem’s period on the time it’s provided to the grid. CPUC determined this week that the NVBT “conflicts with federal regulation and would not meet the requirements” of AB 2316.
CPUC instead suggested that utilities PG&E and SCE should resolve the charge cap obtainable to “disadvantaged communities” utilizing neighborhood photograph voltaic. The photograph voltaic commerce worries this would possibly make neighborhood photograph voltaic incapable of rising proper right into a worthwhile market for problem builders or subscribers.
“The CPUC had a significant different to take a big step forward at the moment to position California as a nationwide chief on neighborhood photograph voltaic deployment. Sadly, this proposed alternative misses the mark completely and may make it unattainable to make sure equitable entry to renewable energy plus storage initiatives that maximize benefits to low-income communities and extra environmental justice. Scaling neighborhood photograph voltaic functionality is significant to impacting as many low-income purchasers as doable,” said Derek Chernow, Western Regional Director for CCSA.
