Gov. Maggie Hassan urged lawmakers to expand a state program that
rewards homeowners and businesses using solar panels to generate electricity,
despite protests from utilities that the program is being paid for by non-solar
customers.
Hassan yesterday urged the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to
approve a bill that would salvage the state’s so-called “net metering” program
in the short term, while stakeholders and regulators work on a long-term
solution.
Her letter arrived as the committee began hearings on the controversial bill
before a packed room of utility representatives, regulators and advocates for
the solar industry.
Under net metering laws, in place in 44 states, the owners of solar panels can
sell electricity back into the grid on those days when they generate more than
they use, and get a credit on their electric bills for the full retail rate per
kilowatt hour sold.
So many have taken advantage of the opportunity in the past year that a
statewide limit on net metering in place since 1998 has been almost totally
exhausted.
“New Hampshire’s families and businesses have invested millions of dollars in
our local economy by installing solar arrays and other renewable generation
facilities that make us more independent and keep our money closer to home,”
Hassan wrote. “This consumer-driven progress must continue, and I support
efforts to lift the cap on net metering as soon as is possible.”
Utility warnings
Under current state law, no more than 50 megawatts of solar energy can be
accommodated in the program. New Hampshire consumes more than 4,000 megawatts
on a hot summer day.
Many of the states with net metering laws have no limit on how many megawatts
can be accommodated, and that’s where solar advocates would like to see New
Hampshire go.
Utilities have lobbied against such a move, warning that the cost of
maintaining the utility poles, wires, transformers, circuit breakers and the
like have to be paid by someone. If too many customers become power producers,
a shrinking number of consumers will be left to maintain the transmission and
distribution system that benefits everyone.
Solar advocates counter that renewable energy produced right where people live
reduces the need for transmission and, in the long run, will save money on
transmission and distribution.
SB 333 would raise the cap from 50 to 75 megawatts,
for the time being, while the Public Utilities Commission conducts a series of
hearings to develop a more permanent solution, most likely by lowering the rate
paid to solar panel owners for the electricity they sell back into the grid.
Compromise won’t come easy, as Wednesday’s hearing indicated. A spokesman for
Borrego Solar, one of the largest commercial developers in the state, suggested
a 200 megawatt limit, while others in the industry would like to see no limit.
Promising industry
In 2014, more than $10 million was invested in solar installations in New
Hampshire, according to Hassan, who warned that failure to reform the state’s
net metering law could slow or even reverse the fortunes of a promising
industry.
“As we have seen with the opening of the SolarCity facility in Manchester, the
arrival of other national companies like Sunrun, and the growth of many small
local businesses, the solar industry is also creating good-paying, high-quality
jobs, spurring economic development and boosting New Hampshire’s growing clean
energy economy,” she wrote.
Richard Labrecque, supplemental energy sources manager for Eversource, told the
committee the current program amounts to a $3 million to $4 million annual
subsidy at the expense of non-solar customers.
“While there are benefits of increasing this cap, we need to make sure that in
a region with some of the highest energy costs in the nation, energy customers
who do not take advantage of residential solar are not burdened by high
electric rates due to renewable energy subsidies,” said Sen. Jeb Bradley,
committee chair and sponsor of the legislation.
An attorney for the Public Utilities Commission estimated that it will take
about a year after the bill is signed into law for the PUC to complete its
hearings and issue a new net metering tariff.
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