On Monday, Aug. 7, the Herald reported that Tri-State denied LPEA’s request to increase the cap on solar generation from 5 to 10 percent. According to the article, LPEA’s spokesman said that solar customers are “not paying ... for [its] infrastructure costs,” with the result that “other members subsidize this cost.” This is hogwash.
I have a photo-voltaic system at my house and we are a “Net Zero Energy” home. This means that over the course of a year, we generate more clean electricity than what our house uses. At the end of the year, LPEA pays us for the excess clean electricity that we sent to it at the same rate that LPEA pays Tri-State for its dirty electricity.
Even though we are NZE, we still pay to LPEA $516 annually in base charges, which are designed to recover its fixed infrastructure costs. At one of our meters, LPEA imposes a monthly base charge of $21.50 even though in most months our usage charge is only 50 cents. Given these facts, how can LPEA credibly claim that we do not pay our fair share of its infrastructure costs or that other customers are somehow subsidizing the operation of our PV system?
LPEA’s spokesman also ignored the many benefits that all of its customers realize from PV systems including reducing:
The amount of electricity LPEA must purchase from Tri-State’s coal-fired plants that pollute our air; The amount of energy lost in generation, long-distance transmission and distribution; and The need to build costly new power plants and other infrastructure.A 1995 study conducted for the Maine Public Utilities Commission concluded that the actual value of electricity generated by PV customers is 33.7 cents/kWh which is over four times what LPEA pays its PV customers for excess electricity.
A recent study in the World Development Journal concluded that in 2013, U.S. electric utilities relying on coal and other fossil fuels received subsidies exceeding $600 million. Utilities, understandably perhaps, choose to ignore these hidden subsidies.
So, LPEA, the facts suggest that, if anything, it is your customers generating clean solar electricity who are subsidizing those customers using Tri-State’s dirty electricity.
Jeff Bork
Durango
