Author Archives Laura Arnold

Indiana electric utilities want monopoly protection from solar and wind in HB 1320 (2015)? YES

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 29, 2015 / Posted in 2015 Indiana General Assembly, solar, Uncategorized, wind / 1 Comments

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Utilities want to protect monopoly status

Kerwin Olson 1:51 p.m. EST January 28, 2015

Energy independence? Affordable energy? All of the above? The 2015 Indiana General Assembly stands poised to define these catch phrases as two proposals are making their way through the legislative process. Hoosiers should pay attention.

While claiming to believe in “all of the above,” our elected officials voted last year to end the Energizing Indiana program, which was creating jobs and saving ratepayers money. As a result, Gov. Mike Pence promised to deliver a strong efficiency proposal in 2015.

He delivered a bill, but it’s anything but strong. SB412, authored by Sen. Jim Merritt, does little to help consumers save energy and everything to pad the pockets of the monopoly utilities. The bill would allow the utilities to establish their own energy efficiency goals and over-collect hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars.

SB412 will lead to efficiency programs with negligible results and will make efficiency far too expensive, effectively pricing it out of the Indiana marketplace.

HB1320, authored by Rep. Eric Koch, would allow the monopolies to write their own rules regarding your ability to generate your own power, on your own property, and to connect your rooftop solar or backyard wind turbine to the grid. Additionally, utilities would be allowed to set the prices for the power you send to the grid. The utility will then sell that same power which you generated to your neighbors at the retail prices they set. The monopolies want to rig the game and tax the sun and the wind. [emphasis added]

HB1320 is being masqueraded by the utilities as policy designed to protect consumers and drive investments in distributed energy, like rooftop solar. Likewise, SB412 is being sold under the guise of creating cost-effective efficiency programs. In reality, these bills will eliminate your freedom to make your own energy choices and will allow the utilities to turn ratepayer-funded efficiency programs into huge profit centers.

The monopolies are trying to kill the only competition they have. Energy efficiency and customer-owned distributed energy, especially rooftop solar, create competition by allowing us to use less of their product and hand over less of our money to them. Rooftop solar and efficiency are threatening their revenues and profits, and bringing into question their monopoly business model. [emphasis added]

The utilities are working hard to ensure that “all of the above” does not include energy efficiency and rooftop solar. And rather than help our state work toward energy independence, they’re doing all they can to keep us dependent on them.

Achieving energy independence, increasing competition and protecting consumers from monopoly abuse is something that most of us agree on. Let’s create policies that will make our businesses, farms, homes and schools as efficient as possible.

Let’s craft policies that capture the potential of the sun and harness the power of the wind to generate the energy we need, right here in Indiana. [emphasis added] These policies would put money in the pockets of Hoosiers by reducing monthly bills for all consumers and creating new jobs that can’t be outsourced. That’s independence. Moreover, that’s freedom.

Kerwin Olson is executive director of Citizens Action Coalition.

IndianaDG Editor's Note: A hearing in the House Utilities Committee on HB 1320 is expected next Wednesday afternoon, February 4th , however, details cannot be confirmed at this time.

Also please visit http://dontkillsolar.com/tusk/where-we-are/indiana/

Why you need to pay attention to Indiana HB 1320 (2015) about solar, wind and net metering; Yes, YOU!

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 26, 2015 / Posted in 2015 Indiana General Assembly, solar, wind / No Comments

Why you need to pay attention to solar energy legislation

Tim Evans, tim.evans@indystar.com6 p.m. EST January 25, 2015

The 36 solar panels point south from their perch on the roof of Cumberland First Baptist Church. At first blush, they seem like an unlikely nod to one of the most basic Christian tenets.

"There is a holy mandate to care for the earth, which God created and called good," The Rev. Thomas Wyatt Watkins tells me, quoting from the Old Testament creation story.

As the pastor showed me the 9-kilowatt, photovoltaic array installed in October, Watkins said the church's plunge into the world of alternative energy is tied to a faith concept called "Creation Care," which focuses on being good stewards of all God's gifts.

A few miles to the west, in the heart of Indianapolis, an even larger span of 80 solar panels sits hidden atop the roof of Englewood Christian Church. It generates about 20 percent of the church's energy, said Joe Bowling, who manages the solar project. That savings frees up money to support church outreach programs in a depressed and under-served neighborhood.

Solar panels are sprouting up alongside steeples and crosses on church rooftops across the state. At least seven Indiana faith groups have made the move to solar power, in part to shift precious dollars from utility bills to God's work, and another seven or so are in the process of adding systems.

But legislation now pending at the Statehouse has Watkins and Bowling concerned that other churches, as well as individual homeowners (they both have solar at home, too), will lose that opportunity. The legislation proposed by Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford, is backed by Indiana's 14 investor-owned electric and gas utilities and opposed by environmentalists, some manufacturers of solar products, consumer advocates and the state's growing faith-based "Creation Care" movement.

Why this matters

Just because you don't have a rooftop solar system now doesn't mean you don't need to be paying attention.

While there is little common ground between the two sides in this fight, there is one point on which they all agree. And this is why you need to be watching this bill: Thanks to technology improvements and dramatic price drops, small-scale, home solar generating systems are on the verge of becoming much more viable for Hoosiers.

That fact is driving a rush from both sides to get out in front of an expected surge in small-scale solar power systems by creating a regulatory framework that best fits their agendas.

Bottom line: There is a heap of money at stake in this fight. And, one way or the other, most of it will come out of our pockets.

At the heart of the fight is the concept called net metering. Under current Indiana law, utilities are required to buy excess power from small-scale producers at retail prices — or the same amount you and I pay the big utilities. The power companies want a new — and better — deal allowing them to buy that power at a wholesale price, cutting the amount solar producers earn by as much as 60 to 70 percent.

Both sides jockeying

Koch's proposal (House Bill 1320) hasn't come up for a hearing yet. But the contentious and complicated legislation already is spurring verbal fireworks, with each side jockeying for public support and claiming the other is spreading misinformation.

Opponents portray the legislation as a boon for the utility companies. It will reduce the financial incentives, they claim, to invest in rooftop solar. They say it also will limit the options for homeowners and churches that want to use "free energy" from the sun to save money and reduce dependence on the state's electrical grid, which relies heavily on coal-fired generating plants.

Supporters contend the bill will do just the opposite. They say it is aimed at removing obstacles for investing in home-based solar and improving customer safety. They also argue it will eliminate an existing "subsidy" they contend now shifts solar savings to other customers, often folks with lesser means than those who can currently afford solar.

Right now, there are only about 600 customers — including the Cumberland and Englewood churches — that both buy and sell power via net metering arrangements with their utility companies. And even if HB 1320 passes, they will be "grandfathered" in under their current deals.

Small-scale producers who are totally off the grid will not be affected. Neither will large commercial producers — such as the solar farm at Indianapolis International Airport and the great expanse of windmills along I-65 in northwestern Indiana. They have separate contracts with the utility companies.

What's at stake

What's at stake is how the utilities deal with homeowners, churches and small businesses who want to turn to solar, wind or other forms of alternative energy — but also must rely on the grid for at least some of their power. That is the segment of the market where the most growth is expected. It also is the one targeted by Koch's legislation.

Koch and Mark Maassel, president of the Indiana Energy Association, say the current net metering hurts customers who don't have solar panels of their own. And, if small-scale solar expands as expected, they say it will shift a growing share of the utilities' fixed costs for generation, transmission and distribution onto traditional customers.

They also told me the bill would make solar more accessible to residential customers by setting leasing guidelines for those who cannot afford to purchase a system. It also would establish "right to know" standards for those leases so consumers don't get surprised by costs or conditions tucked deep in a contract's fine print, Koch explained.

"The goal is to promote (small-scale solar) in a way that is responsible and with a regulatory structure going forward that allows consumers to invest with confidence and to be protected," he told me Friday.

"We are trying to get out in front of a lot of the issues that have created problems in other states."

Kerwin Olson, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition, disagrees with Koch and the IEA's effort to frame the legislation as consumer-friendly. He also strongly disagrees with their contention that net metering users receive any subsidy. The utilities enjoy other savings, he said, when they buy power via net metering, even when they pay the retail price.

"We reject the very starting point of the conversation," Olson said. "This is a war on solar because of the dramatic decrease in costs and the explosion (of small systems) across the U.S."

The bill has not been scheduled for a public hearing. But it could come up before the utilities and energy committee in the House as early as Wednesday. When that hearing comes, Koch said he is open to discussion — and he expects to see amendments proposed.

A call for a study

Olson and opponents are calling for lawmakers to hit the pause button on the bill. They would like to see an independent study on the effects of the growing solar market on the utilities and their customers.

Olson said similar studies in other states have contradicted the utilities' claims regarding the impact of net metering. An Arizona study, for instance, found each dollar spent buying power through net metering provided $1.54 in benefits to Arizona Public Service customers. Those benefits come from avoiding "expensive and polluting conventional power and power plants; reduced investments in transmission and distribution infrastructure; reduced electricity lost during transportation over power lines ... and savings on the cost of meeting renewable energy requirements," the study said.

"The utilities," Olson contends, "are trying to avoid that conversation in Indiana."

Tim Evans is The Star's consumer advocate. Call him at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.

I&M President Chodak discusses company’s proposed 16 MW solar PV plan

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 26, 2015 / Posted in Indiana Michigan Power Company (I&M), solar, wind / No Comments

I&M President Paul Chodak III

January 26, 2015 1:01 AM

I&M shines light on power diversity

by Paul Chodak III

Solar power is coming to customers of Indiana Michigan Power. It is emission-free and is becoming a cost-effective source of power for our customers. So, we are looking forward to solar becoming a much larger part of our generation fleet.

Later this year, I&M will pass an historic milestone: More than half of I&M’s generation capacity will be emission-free. As we adapt to changing rules and customer needs, the percentage of emission-free power will increase as I&M adds solar to our generation portfolio.

Our interest in solar generation isn’t different than that of homeowners who choose to install panels on their roofs. We want to reduce our carbon footprint and increase our use of renewable energy, helping our customers and our company achieve a common goal.

I&M plans to take a significant first step in building our solar generation by adding 16 megawatts of solar capacity by the end of 2016, equivalent to installing rooftop solar on 3,200 homes. Our plans, now pending before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, call for five solar facilities to be located in areas served by I&M.

By operating and owning the facilities, I&M will gain valuable knowledge as our determined and adaptive employees become proficient in operating solar facilities and incorporating the solar energy onto the electric grid. We will use those best practices in planning additional solar facilities, as our long-term plans anticipate eventually adding more than 500 megawatts of solar to serve our customers.

I&M is dedicated to serving our customers’ energy needs, and customers have the right to choose to install solar systems. We support that choice and will work to help customers with those installations. However, cost data show that larger-scale, central solar costs 30 percent to 50 percent less than rooftop solar.

Adding solar further broadens our already-diverse generation portfolio, which also includes nuclear power, hydroelectric, coal and wind. The recent addition of 200â megawatts of wind power from the Headwaters Wind Farm about 75 miles south of Fort Wayne marks an 80 percent increase in our wind generation. Diversity in generation sources provides greater flexibility. We will continue to add renewables where and when they make sense for our customers.

We are also addressing carbon emissions with ambitious, responsible programs to encourage our customers to use energy more efficiently. Though you may have heard that the statewide Energizing Indiana program offered energy efficiency programs ended Dec. 31, I&M continues to offer residential and business customers a variety of customer-friendly incentives and information to help conserve energy (see www.electricideas.com).

The move to add solar comes even as I&M works to improve our traditional energy delivery systems to better serve our customers. We are modernizing and significantly improving the reliability of our grid by rebuilding lines and replacing equipment which has served us well for multiple decades. By enhancing reliability while maintaining affordable customer rates, together we can make our communities stronger.

Paul Chodak III is president and chief operating officer of Indiana Michigan Power. He wrote this for The Journal Gazette.

Utilities push anti-free market solar bill HB 1320 but they want to sell solar and DG themselves

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 24, 2015 / Posted in 2015 Indiana General Assembly, solar, wind / 1 Comments

Utilities favor legislation changing economics of rooftop panels

January 24, 2015

Kathleen McLaughlin

Joe Bowling is executive director of the Englewood CDC, which has solar panels on the roof of its Rural Street offices. (IBJ photo/Eric Learned)

In the estimation of electric utilities, rooftop-solar users like Joe Bowling are freeloaders.

They receive credits for producing energy beyond their own needs, and they still have access to the grid whenever they need it. The problem, utilities argue, is that the cost of maintaining the grid doesn’t go down; it shifts to the rest of the customer base.

That’s why investor-owned utilities are lobbying for a bill authored by House Utilities and Energy Committee Chairman Eric Koch that would allow them to change the economics of generating energy on-site and selling back to the grid, which is known as net metering.

Currently, utilities like Indianapolis Power & Light and Duke Energy have to give net-metering customers credit at the retail price of electricity. If a customer pays 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, he will be credited at that rate for any excess. Koch’s bill, House Bill 1320, would allow the utilities to pay lower rates and to charge additional fees for connecting solar or wind systems to the grid.

“For sure, they provide a real service in maintaining the grid,” Bowling said of the utilities. “Whatever that true cost is, we ought to pay it. No one here is trying to put our local utilities out of business.”

That question about the true cost of maintaining the grid, and whether solar, wind and other forms of “distributed generation” raise or lower it, is a thorny one. It’s at the heart of a national debate between utilities and solar installers and environmental interests, and thanks to Koch’s bill, Indiana is the new battleground.

Advocates of net metering say it’s no coincidence utility companies are lobbying to change their fee structures as solar-panel prices are plummeting. They say utilities play up the fixed costs of the grid without accounting for the money they save because of solar users who reduce demand at peak times, like hot summer days.

Bowling’s home solar would be grandfathered under HB 1320, but the bill could make future projects less attractive. Englewood Community Development Corp., where Bowling is executive director, is planning to build affordable apartments for senior citizens and hopes to offer solar-driven net metering to each unit.

The fact that utilities have already labeled net-metering customers as cost-shifters is worrisome, Bowling said. He likens their argument to Wal-Mart’s complaining about backyard gardeners who also shop at grocery stores, and then asking for a law that would require them to sell their produce to Wal-Mart at wholesale prices.

Koch

“That’s unjust. That’s monstrous. That’s evil. We ought not stand for it,” Bowling said. “We would not stand for it if it were a food issue. Because energy stuff is so mysterious and makes people’s eyes glaze over, you can get away with just about anything.”

Net-metering advocates say Koch’s bill would gut the program in Indiana. There were only 523 participants statewide in 2013, but the program has grown quickly. More than 300 net-metering customers have been added since 2011.

Koch, a Republican from Bedford, said his goal is to promote distributed generation, but to do so with fair ground rules, before rooftop solar becomes widespread in Indiana.

If utilities are allowed to credit generated solar energy at wholesale—not retail—rates, the time it takes Joe Bowling to recoup the money he spent on his home solar system could double. (IBJ photo/Eric Learned)

“There’s a narrative out there that this is the utilities versus the little guy,” Koch said. That’s not the case, he said.

“The utilities can’t do anything unilaterally,” Koch said. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission would have to approve each utility’s net-metering rates and fees. “It’s a mini trial,” he said. “We have a very good commission and a very good process.”

Koch acknowledged that utilities would probably reduce the value of their credits. Rural electric co-operatives, which aren’t regulated by the IURC, already offer credits at less-than-retail rates, he said, yet they still have viable programs. [emphasis added]

Mark Maassel, president of the Indiana Energy Association, which represents investor-owned gas and electric utilities, said Indiana’s net-metering rule isn’t fair because it requires utilities to pay three times as much for energy as they would on the open market.

Maassel

Utilities don’t want to eliminate distributed generation, Maassel said. In fact, he said they might want to get into the business. [emphasis added]

Other provisions of Koch’s bill make it legal to lease solar systems in Indiana and create disclosure rules and other consumer protections. Leasing could make solar even more affordable, as in Arizona and other states, Maassel said.

Low-income burden?

In a twist on typical political alliances, utilities are backed by at least one environmental group and one minority coalition as they push to change net-metering rules.

Koch pointed to a joint statement issued a year ago by the Edison Electric Institute and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which asks state regulators to rethink the way utilities recover their costs, in light of new technology that allows customers to sell energy back to the grid.

The National Policy Alliance, a group of African-American politicians, issued a resolution saying net metering shifts the burden to low-income customers, a disproportionate number of whom are black.

Maassel pointed to a detailed study in California that found net-metering customers, which number around 150,000 in the Golden State, pay for 88 percent of their fixed costs. Most of them had consumed large amounts of energy before they went to net metering, and they were wealthier than typical customers. The median household income among net-metering customers was $91,210, compared with $63,821 across the territories of three investor-owned utilities.

A competing California study, cited by the Hoosier Environmental Council, found that net metering didn’t shift costs onto traditional customers and instead provided a small net benefit.

How net metering affects a system depends much on specific electricity rates. In California, customers pay higher rates as they use more and more electricity, but the opposite is true for IPL and Duke customers in Indiana, said Laura Ann Arnold, president of the Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance, which includes solar and wind installers, photovoltaic developers and electrical engineers.

Yet Maassel doesn’t hesitate to conclude that net metering in Indiana shifts a large burden to traditional customers.

“If you installed a windmill in your back yard … all of the customers around you would have to pay an increased amount of money because of your system,” he said. “They could easily pay twice what you would pay in terms of the wire coming out of your house.” [empasis added]

Net-metering math

After the Englewood CDC installed a solar array at its offices on Rural Street, Bowling began to look for an opportunity to add solar to his home nearby.

He put himself on a waiting list for IPL’s $1,575 rebate, which expired at the end of 2014, and just before the end of the year, he and two neighbors were notified of their eligibility.

Because of the rebate, Bowling hopes to recover the cost of his $4,500 system in about 15 years. If he qualifies for a federal income-tax credit as well, the payback period could be as short as seven years.

Bowling’s system is so small, he thinks he’ll generate only a little excess energy in the summer months. Even without selling much back to the grid, the current net-metering system made solar a viable investment.

Electricity prices are the key factor. IPL customers pay about 8 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first 1,000 kilowatt-hours they use each month. As long as the utility credits him at that retail rate, Bowling’s system saves him $201.60 a year.•

Tell Utilities Solar Won’t Be Killed (TUSK) Joins fight to Oppose Indiana HB 1320

Posted by Laura Arnold / January 23, 2015 / Posted in 2015 Indiana General Assembly, solar / No Comments

IndianaDG sends a big THANK YOU TO TUSK for...

Visit this website and take action today.

http://action.dontkillsolar.com/page/speakout/hoosiers-don-t-let-monopoly-utilities-kill-your-right-to-choose-solar-?js=false

The Issue

Monopoly utilities want to extinguish the independent rooftop solar market in America to protect their socialist control of how we get our electricity. They have engaged in class warfare and tried to sabotage net metering, a billing method that gives individual homeowners fair credit for power produced on their own rooftops. They would like to deny us Americans energy choice and maintain their monopoly status.

See recent developments here»

Our Chairman, Barry Goldwater Jr.

As a son of Arizona, I know we have no greater resource than the sun. Republicans want the freedom to make the best choice and the competition to drive down rates.That choice may mean they save money, and with solar that is the case. Solar companies have a track record of aggressively reducing costs in America. We can't let solar energy - and all its advantages and benefits it provides us - be pushed aside by monopolies wanting to limit energy choice. That's not the conservative way and it's not the American way.

Barry Goldwater Jr.,
Former US Congressman

For information and background on TUSK see this article from the Wall Street Journal from July 2013! IndianaDG has been following TUSK since this WSJ article appeared.

GO TUSK!

http://www.indianadg.net/wsj-solar-groups-seek-tea-party-support-why-do-some-republicans-support-electric-utility-monopolies/