Oklahoma House committee passes new utility charge for residential solar

[Old Fart]

Users of rooftop solar panels in Oklahoma who want to send excess electricity back into the grid will have to pay an extra charge under a bill passed Monday by a House committee.

Senate Bill 1456 passed the House’s utility and environmental regulation committee by a vote of 7-0. Its House sponsor, Rep. Mike Turner, R-Edmond, said the bill would establish a new rate tariff so utilities could recover some of the infrastructure costs needed to serve customers who install distributed generation.

“I question if it’s appropriate for other ratepayers to bear the expense of necessary infrastructure improvements to accommodate individuals that ride the fence,” Turner said after the committee.

Bud Ground, with Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, said the state’s current rates and tariffs unfairly reward customers who can afford to make the upfront expenditures needed to install solar panels, small wind turbines or other types of distributed generation. A new class of customers for distributed generation would prevent that kind of cross-subsidization, he said.

Complete article: http://newsok.com/oklahoma-house-co...-charge-for-residential-solar/article/3948940

 

[Shadowrider]

I'd wager that their donation lists are uh...well..."interesting".

 

[swampratt]

F them...
They will stick it to you any way they can.
When i signed up for wind power on my OG&E bill many years ago they stated then it would save me money on my bill.
And it did for a short time..Then it started costing me..another charge they tack on..
I opted out of it just recently and i have had it since the day they offered it..they can cram it.

 

[Glocktogo]

What infrastructure improvement costs are the utility companies bearing for distributed generators, that they don't for straight consumers?

 

[Old Fart]

They do something similar to this in Missouri.
Your best bet is to plan/meter for a zero balance.
I believe there if you don't dump more energy into the system than you take there's no "penalty".

 

[Blitzfike]

What infrastructure improvement costs are the utility companies bearing for distributed generators, that they don't for straight consumers?

The added cost of for a meter that cheats you on how much power you put back into the grid. It should be the same either way, but the meter runs slower for power going back into the grid from your small co-generation efforts. Meaning that you get less credit for the power generated than the cost for power you use..

 

[SMS]

Doesn't seem unreasonable for the solar homeowner to bear some of the cost....if they want to be free from the grid, why should they get to use that same grid free of charge in order to sell power back?

 

[mtnboomer]

I noticed that the sponsor for the bill is from Edmond - which has it's own electric company, by the way. I'm sure bill is in response to those Edmond owners of those multi-million dollar homes that don't want that cheap, inferior locally-made electricity in their houses. They must have that high-grade, imported electricity from................from............wherever it comes from!

 

[Old Timer]

Very interesting, my old meter would run backwards, but they changed to a smart meter several years ago.
My smart meter will not run backwards. I have sit there and watched it, it just stops instead of going backwards.
I always wondered if it was on purpose.

 

[Gideon]

I don't want to sell power back. I just don't want to pay them for free sunlight.