![]() Every participating community will have to pay in, although a cost-sharing agreement means larger cities will pay more. CREP carries $700,000 in startup costs for legal and technical consultants, program design and filing. The discussions in Utah have highlighted obstacles, especially in a political environment where rising gasoline prices and inflation are at the top of voters’ minds. “Every community has to do this differently, and not everyone has the resources or technical staff to do it.” “A New York or a San Francisco may have a wealth of resources for planning and implementation, but smaller communities won’t,” Kasza said. But there’s a difference between making a commitment and executing it, especially when politics and the costs of implementation come into play, said Nick Kasza, manager of the National League of Cities’ sustainability program. cities was the largest on record, enough to power more than 940,000 homes annually.ĬREP showed that such pledges could even work in a conservative, coal-heavy state like Utah. The 4,370 megawatts of renewable energy announced last year by U.S. executed 290 renewable energy deals in 2021, a 55 percent increase from the previous year. As the Trump administration stalled national climate action, cities and states set their own ambitious goals and drove much of the country’s move toward clean energy and transportation - a trend that has continued even as the Biden administration has pushed for a decarbonized grid and is working on a climate package with congressional Democrats.Īccording to data from the World Resources Institute, 155 cities in the U.S. That U-turn shows the challenge some cities face when confronting the political and logistical hurdles of acquiring clean energy. Five other cities that initially joined CREP also backed out before last month’s deadline, according to Utah 100 Communities, an organization representing the program’s participants. Just ahead of a May 31 deadline to officially commit to CREP and pay administrative costs, the City Council elected to back out. Less than three years later, however, West Valley City reversed course. The move proved detrimental to the solar sector, with developers claiming new applications for rooftop arrays dropped more than 90% in SRP's service territory.“This is more than a dream, we’re taking action,” said then-West Valley City Mayor Ron Bigelow in 2019, according to the West Valley Journal. Utilities have proposed similar rate schemes, including residential demand charges on rooftop solar customers, but the critics have said demand charges in particular are hard for the average rate payer to understand.Īnd in 2015, Arizona's public power utility Salt River Project levied demand charges on solar customers. In Arizona, regulators are contending with a value of solar docket that could set precedents beyond its borders for solar rate reforms. ![]() In Nevada, a high-profile example, regulators last year slashed net metering rates and initially declined to grandfather in other customers, though a compromise between NV Energy and solar companies has since reversed that. The extent to which net-metered customers benefit or cost the utility grid is a contentious issue in states around the country. The utility is also proposing a new $60 application fee for most net metering customers to "cover the actual costs of processing the applications." ![]() RMP said its study showed residential net metering customers now receive bill savings worth about $0.105/kWh they produce, while the utility could purchase from large-scale renewable projects at about a third of the cost. "Over the next 20 years the cost shift to other customers is estimated to be about $667 million," the utility said in a statement. And RMP says that amount is forecast to grow to as much as $78 million annually if the issue is not addressed. The utility said it has conducted a study that shows a typical rooftop solar customer underpays their actual cost of service by about $400 per year, amounting to $6.5 million each year that is shifted to other residential customers. PacifiCorp subsidiary Rocky Mountain Power has proposed new rates for solar customers that would raise their bills and could make rooftop solar less appealing in a similar fashion to Arizona and Nevada. Utah appears to be the next battleground over compensating rooftop solar customers for their excess energy. ![]()
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