Texas Net Metering Saved from Disaster
Our friends at Vote Solar asked us to help with an urgent action in Texas in late March 2008.
Solar power in Texas is on the verge of boom or bust. Solar panel manufacturers are looking to open production there, and new home builders see solar rooftops as a prime selling point. Texas stands to gain 123,000 new high-wage, technology-related, advanced manufacturing and electrical services jobs by 2020 from a robust solar industry.
Good jobs and clean power–this is the boom!
And the bust? A functioning grid-connected solar market depends on a key policy called net metering. Net metering is a simple billing arrangement by which solar customers realize savings from their solar systems. Net metering allows a customer to be credited for electricity generated by their system and dispatched onto the grid when it’s not immediately consumed on-site.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas proposed a rule on Friday March 21 that would undermine net metering. Commissioners were set to vote on this rule on Wednesday March 26, giving solar energy supporters no time to comment, nor educate the Commission on how this proposed rule would handicap the solar industry in Texas.
In a nutshell, the proposed rule:
- would ensure that Texas utilities are compensated for all line charges associated with on-site generation and for whatever metering they choose to install.
- would provide no guarantee that an owner of a solar system would receive any compensation or credit for energy delivered to the grid.
We put an action alert out on Tuesday March 25–the day before the vote–asking Texas solar citizens to urge the Public Utility Commissioners to give solar a fair review. By the next morning, 177 solar citizens had joined their voices with Vote Solar members to demand a delay in the commissioners’ vote.
The commissioners blinked.
The all-important vote was put off until April 9th, during which time Vote Solar will try to get the language changed to favor clean energy advocates instead of the utilities.
And solar citizens helped to make this happen!
