Maine regulators are proposing changes to the way the state’s solar power producers are compensated for excess energy they put on the grid, and it’s more generous than what Gov. Paul LePage has put forth.
The draft proposal from the Maine Public Utilities Commission would give existing solar power producers a 15-year “grandfather” period during which they can continue to earn the same rates for excess power they put on the grid.
That’s much longer than the three years LePage has proposed.
But the commission is also calling for major changes in how new solar providers are paid.
For solar installations that go in after a new rule is adopted, one portion of the excess power credits they could receive — related to “poles and wires” charges on electricity bills — would be phased out over ten years.
Commission Chairman Mark Vannoy says that’s because solar tech’s getting cheaper, and future solar producers shouldn’t shift their share of pole and wires costs onto the rest of the grid’s users.
“The basic changes in the rule seek to equitably compensate distributed generation owners for their excess energy, while tailoring the program to the cost declines that are occurring and are projected to occur,” he says.
A written draft of the proposal has yet to be issued. Vannoy left open the question of exactly how new solar producers should be paid for the electrons they put on the grid.
He suggests that with the advent of smart-meter technology, which can track electricity flows in nearly real time, solar producers might want payments linked directly to wholesale energy markets.
Vannoy cites a massive spike in spot-market electricity prices last month that was linked to an outage at a nuclear plant in Connecticut: Solar producers, he says, could take advantage of those moments.
“It would be very possible for a producer during that period to be well on their way to paying for their entire installation,” he says. “When you have excursions in price like that, there’s a lot of money to be made.”
But some stakeholders don’t like the idea of moving away from the old system of credits, known as net metering.
“All of this shouldn’t be happening. The Public Utilities Commission didn’t need to propose changes to net metering. They were under no obligation to do so,” says Dylan Voorhees of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
Voorhees says the proposal could cut by half the price solar producers receive for excess energy. And, he says, an independent analysis commissioned by the PUC itself concluded that local solar generation benefits all Maine electricity users by reducing demand on the grid.
“So slowing down on solar is not the direction that Maine should go in when it’s already in last place in the Northeast,” he says.
The proposal also includes new consumer protections, provisions for group solar projects and a bigger goal for the amount of solar power Maine should produce. It will now be reviewed by stakeholders from all sides of the issue before the commission issues a final version.
Then, it’s widely expected that the next Legislature will take up the debate again.