Calif. utilities target rooftop solar
By Chris Clarke
REWIRE
California’s three largest investor-owned utilities are renewing their complaints over rooftop solar, according to a story this morning on the business website Bloomberg.com. As more and more homeowners install rooftop solar panels and sell power back to the grid, utilities say they are passing as much as $1.3 billion in costs on to other customers.
Not mentioned by the utilities: the more than $15 billion ratepayers across the state will need to pay to build new transmission lines if we meet the state’s renewable energy mandates without rooftop solar.
According to the article, the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities — San Diego GHas & Electric (SDG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) — estimate that once the state hits its legal upper limit on net-metered solar, the utilities will be passing along hundreds of millions of dollars in costs to ratepayers without solar panels. SDG&E will be getting $200 million a year from non-solar ratepayers; SCE about $400 million, and PG&E about $700 million.
