SDG&E becomes first California utility to hit net metering cap

By Krysti Shallenberger, UtilityDIVE

Dive Brief:

• San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) hit its net metering cap late yesterday afternoon, according to the utility's real-time net metering application tracking dashboard. 
• SDG&E is the first major utility in California to hit the cap, which limits distributed generation projects eligible for net metering to 5% of a utility's peak demand. 
• New applications will now be shifted to the new time-of-use rates and fees established in California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)'s decision earlier this year that outlined the successor tariff for net metering. 

Dive Insight:

It was only a matter of time before SDG&E hit the cap after sounding the alarm a year ago that net metering applications were piling up fast.

SDG&E is the first California utility to breach the cap. While such an event typically induces panic in solar advocates (as seen in states like Nevada and Massachusetts), California regulators acted swiftly enough to ensure a plan was in place for when the cap would be hit. 

Under CPUC's January decision, new net metering customers will be able to keep retail rate remuneration for energy exported to the grid after the cap is hit, but they will also pay a one-time interconnection fee between $75 and $150, a non-bypassable monthly charge ranging from $0.02/kWh to 0.03/kWh, and will be moved onto time-of-use rates.

The solar industry isn't particularly worried about the impacts of a California utility hitting its net metering cap. Bernedette Del Chiaro, executive director of California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA), doesn't anticipate any slowdowns in rooftop solar installations in SDG&E's service territory after the cap is hit, according to PV Tech.

"If anything, we anticipate a return to growth as more consumers realize that NEM 2.0 isn’t a threat to the economics of solar and that now is just as good to go solar as ever," she said.

The other two major California utilities, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric, aren't far behind SDG&E in reaching their own net metering caps. As of June 19, the last time PG&E's net metering tracker was updated, the utility was about 289 MW away from reaching its 2,409 MW cap. SCE, which hasn't updated its tracker since April, was about 621 MW away from its 2,240 MW cap.

Source: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/sdge-becomes-first-california-utility-to-hit-net-metering-cap/421819/

As SDG&E edges closer to net metering cap, solar installations not expected to slow

By Krysti Shallenberger, UtilityDIVE

Dive Brief:

• San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) will likely be the first utility in California to surpass its net metering cap (5% of its peak demand) and enter into the new rates and fees designed by the NEM 2.0 proceeding, PV Tech reports. 
• According to SDG&E's real-time net metering dashboard, the utility is 4.7 MW from hitting its 617 MW cap, with 37.4 MW of net metering applications left in the queue. 
• Once the cap is breached, new net metering customers will shift to the new net metering fees and time-of-use rates set by the California Public Utilities Commission in their net metering decision earlier this year. 

Dive Insight:

SDG&E sounded the alarm last year that the aggregate caps on net metered systems in California were close to being hit.

Now looks likely to receive the distinction of being the first utility to hit its limit. But unlike in other states, it's not a panic-inducing circumstance since the CPUC already has a solution in place.

Under a January regulatory decision, new net metering customers be able to keep retail rate remuneration for energy exported to the grid after the cap is hit. But they will also pay a one-time connection fee between $75 and $150, a non-bypassable charge from $0.02/kWh to 0.03/kWh, and will be switched to time-of-use rates.

The solar industry welcomed the new regulatory scheme, saying the commissioners understood the importance of retail rate net metering to sustain rooftop solar. Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA) doesn't anticipate any slowdowns in rooftop solar installations in SDG&E's service territory after the cap is hit, according to PV Tech.

“The California Public Utilities Commission did a good job of making the change to net metering small enough to not cause significant harm to the market while also addressing some of the utility’s concern," she told the outlet. "It was a balancing act but one in which the California solar industry is primed and ready to step up to the plate and do its part to lower costs so that consumers feel no difference between the two different programs. If anything, we anticipate a return to growth as more consumers realize that NEM 2.0 isn’t a threat to the economics of solar and that now is just as good to go solar as ever."

Source: http://www.utilitydive.com/news/as-sdge-edges-closer-to-net-metering-cap-solar-installations-not-expected/421312/

Imperial Irrigation District must support rooftop solar

By The Desert Sun Editorial Board

Imperial Irrigation District has taken a lot of heat lately.

The community-owned utility that provides electricity to customers across a significant portion of the Coachella Valley – including Mecca, Thermal, La Quinta, Coachella, Indio, Bermuda Dunes, Thousand Palms, Indio Hills and Sky Valley – has drawn fire for its handling of rooftop solar.

In February, IID abruptly announced it had reached its cap and would not be enrolling new customers into its net energy metering program, which pays for excess electricity generated by home and business solar arrays that is sent to the grid. That action left in a lurch hundreds of customers who had already installed arrays or who were in the process of doing so.

During a recent meeting with The Desert Sun Editorial Board, General Manager Kevin Kelley acknowledged that IID’s handling of the situation was “ham-handed” at best.

IID, California's third-largest public power utility, can go a long way in making amends for what has been a public relations nightmare by following through on creation of a new, robust solar incentive program.

The plan – which will be the focus of public hearings next month -- should make whole those customers who were prevented from going forward with their attempt to help the environment and better manage their electricity costs.  It also must offer a real incentive to motivate more to make this “green” power shift.

IID officials acknowledge that rooftop solar must be a key component of the utility’s future. Kelley and Energy Manager Vicken Kasarjian told the editorial board that they would like to see IID’s Board of Directors approve a new, “unlimited” net energy metering program, but with much lower compensation rates for those who enroll.

Under its previous NEM program (which has terms that continue for those already taking part), customers with solar receive about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour for the excess electricity they send to the grid. Kelly and Kasarjian say the new program IID staff will push for approval likely will set the compensation rate at closer to 4 cents per kWh.

IID should approve a NEM plan with an incentive that goes beyond merely paying a wholesale rate for the power it buys from rooftop solar customers, but offers them a reason to make the personalinvestment in their properties that the utility itself acknowledges is beneficial to the entire system.

Officials from California's solar industry, which employs thousands, say the 4 cent rate being considered doesn’t “pencil out” and leaves rooftop solar in IID as attractive mainly to the altruistic wealthy.

“That would significantly slow down, if not pretty much kill the rooftop solar market. You can't take the economic profile of solar and reduce it by a third, and expect the market to just rebound overnight," Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association, told The Desert Sun’s Sammy Roth.

Ideally, IID staff will work closely with industry officials to develop a new NEM program -- perhaps with additional layers such as system maintenance and access charges -- that offers a compensation rate to spur continued solar acceptance while it equitably supports the IID grid for all customers moving forward.

Finally, Kelley, Kasarjian and their staff must convince the agency’s board that solar is a boon for IID. While the board has given its OK for IID staff to develop a new NEM concept, some board members have been dismissive or even openly hostile toward solar.

“If we dropped all tax credits and everything else, it would go away. That's where I stand,” board member Stephen Benson said at the panel’s May 10 meeting. “I'm up for re-election in December. You can vote me in or vote me out.”

Source: http://www.desertsun.com/story/opinion/editorials/2016/06/21/our-voice-iid-rooftop-solar-incentives/86202150/

PG&E to phase out California’s last nuclear plant in favor of renewables

The California utility has also set a goal of 55% renewable energy by 2031, which is more aggressive than the state’s current renewable energy mandate.

By Christian Roselund, PV Magazine

When changes are coming, you can either attempt to delay them or get ahead of them and try to steer the course of these changes. Today Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) showed that in terms of the shift to renewable energy, it is choosing a combination of both options.

The utility has announced a proposal to California regulators to phase-out the Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP), by 2026. Diablo Canyon is the state’s sole remaining operational nuclear power plant, following the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in 2013. It is also one of two remaining operational plants on the U.S. West Coast.

Under the proposal, PG&E will additionally increase energy efficiency efforts and set a goal to procure 55% of electricity from renewable energy sources by 2031. This is more aggressive than California’s renewable energy mandate of 50% by 2030, and as such an unusual proposal by an investor-owned utility. 

However, PG&E is not alone. The measures represent a joint proposal by the utility, the utility workers’ union, the electrical workers’ union, three environmental groups and a nuclear watchdog.

However, solar trade groups are not part of that coalition, and have critiques of the plan. California Solar Energy Industries Association (CalSEIA) Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro says that while the plan to replace nuclear generation with carbon-free sources is "laudable", that the plan contains no provisions to replace any of the nuclear capacity with solar.

"Given the significant growth of the rooftop solar market in PG&E territory, it seems like a major oversight of this agreement to preclude customer-sited renewable energy from counting toward the replacement power and to not allow tariffs to at least help achieve these goals," Del Chiaro told pv magazine. 

"Further, to dictate how 2,000 annual gigawatt hours are to be brought online, eight years in advance, and seems premature."

Aside from overlooking rooftop solar, this move to shut down the last nuclear power plant as part of an increase in renewable energy is reminiscent of Germany’s “Energiewende”, of which one component is the nation's nuclear phase-out.

In supporting documents, PG&E references technical challenges which are similar to those experienced in Germany. The utility cites “challenges with inflexible baseload generation” in the proposal, and also “the challenge of managing overgeneration and intermittency conditions under a resource portfolio increasingly influenced by solar and wind production”. 

Nuclear is the least flexible form of conventional generation, and this conflict has resulted in negative power prices in California as well as curtailment of wind and solar. This issue has been highlighted in the U.S. press, including National Public Radio and MIT Technology Review, however the many articles often fail to recognize that it is the inflexibility of nuclear and other forms of baseload generation which are causing negative prices, as wind and solar typically curtail instead of over-generating.

And by setting a date of 2024/2025 for full phase-out, PG&E is planning to continue operation of the Diablo Canyon plant for another nine years, a period during which such issues will only get worse.

PG&E is also protecting itself from financial impacts due to these changes. Under this proposal, the utility will ensure that it fully recovers its investments in Diablo Canyon. 

Additionally, the utility plans to make sure that any new renewable energy procurement is covered in “non-bypassable” charges to its customers. These are charges that owners of net-metered PV systems must also pay, in addition to non-solar customers.

However, CALSEIA's Del Chiaro notes that it is not yet clear if these additional non-bypassable charges will significantly impact the economics of net metered solar arrays in California.

Source: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/energiewende-us--pge-to-phase-out-californias-last-nuclear-plant-in-favor-of-renewables_100025107/#ixzz4EV1W7lqH