Comments on: Another Prominent Republican Fighting Utility Monopoly For Rooftop Solar Power Rights

By: DV

DV — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 15:59:00 +0000

I am surprised the Fed hadn’t stepped in and tried to break up the power company’s monopolies like they did with JP Morgan, and his comrades while Roosevelt was President.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:41:00 +0000

I would argue the opposite for residential wind. Because wind generates a lot of power off peak, net metering of wind power would be harmful to the utility industry.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:36:00 +0000

Completely agree. I am a user of the grid infrastructure during off peak as a consumer. However, during the day, SCE is using my PV investment to feed the grid during high peak power demand. This is a symbiotic relationship that favors the utility by taking expensive energy during the day and replacing it with cheep electricity during the night.

I see these arguments from the utilities as manipulation of the facts as a means to increase their profits. Residential solars helps the utilities – they are arguing the opposite to gouge PV owners. Don’t let them.

By: Doug

Doug — Thu, 22 Aug 2013 13:30:00 +0000

That’s exactly what the fee will encourage. I have grid connected solar and feel that I’m giving away peak demand power in return for consuming it at the lowest period of off peak demand. The capital investment for my system was not paid by the utility.

By: StefanoR99

StefanoR99 — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 06:01:00 +0000

Surely the solution for consumers in Arizona is to invest in rooftop + battery storage and cut the cord completely from APS?

By: SolarPro

SolarPro — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 21:09:00 +0000

But let’s not forget that APS OWNS the current Corporation Commission in AZ. APS gets what they want with no rational examination of facts, policy imperatives, or reality. The Commission just buys the APS stance and rubber stamps it. Thus the deck is stacked AGAINST the rest of the businesses and residents of AZ to enrich APS and gain more contributions to elected Commissioners who run on anti-solar, anti-environmental platforms. A cozy relationship at best.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 19:24:00 +0000

Coal has a political disadvantage in that it is extracted/mined in only limited geographical areas. Coal mining jobs are concentrated. Coal may be able to control their national representatives for their area, but their area is limited.

Solar is being installed in all 50 states. Every state is going to start feeling the power of the solar industry just as windy states are feeling the political and economic power of wind turbines.

By: agelbert

agelbert — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 18:53:00 +0000

Excellent. I always suspected that the key to putting Renewable energy over the top against attempts to keep it out of a lot of people (distributed) would be the huge numbers of jobs renewable energy generates. All these people have families that talk. The utilities trying to hog this energy source simply will not work because everybody CAN have his own energy harvesting AND save 20% or so on grid energy because it is distributed, not centralized. People of ALL political parties understand this intuitively, if not technically.

That said, I’m certain large centralized PV farms and wind farms aren’t going away but will grow as well. The main thing is that as more and more people work in Renewables, versus the fossil fuel industry, more and more political power shifts away from fossil fuels. When the huge subsidies fossil fuel gets finally get shifted to Renewable Energy, that will be the end for fossil fuel poisons.

Senator Sanders’ bill (End Polluter Welfare Act) is a good first step towards that goal. If you are a U.S. citizen, pleas go to his web site and become a citizen sponsor of the bill. Every extra sponsor helps.

From Senator Sanders’ web site:

“End Fossil Fuel Welfare, Invest in Sustainable Energy

Sen. Sanders introduced the End Polluter Welfare Act, which would save taxpayers more than $113 billion over 10 years by eliminating subsidies for the oil, gas and coal industries. Instead of continuing to heap subsidies on the fossil fuel industry, one of the most profitable in history, the senator believes we should invest in clean, sustainable energy. To that end, Sen. Sanders introduced the Ten Million Solar Roofs Act, which has bipartisan support, and has been approved by the Energy Committee. The legislation helps reduce the cost of solar energy for homes and businesses. Sen. Sanders also supports the use of biomass (wood, grasses and other plant products used for fuel), and passed an amendment in the Senate to help communities establish biomass heating cooperatives to expand the market for sustainable biomass heating. He is a strong advocate for sustainable energy tax incentives like the Investment Tax Credit and Production Tax Credit which help reduce the cost of wind and solar projects, and makes geothermal heating and cooling more affordable for consumers.”
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/legislation/issue/?id=4b0bc4ae-4af5-43ea-8cf1-523f386ee5ba

By: Steeple

Steeple — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:37:00 +0000

Electrical utilities seem to have a broken business model. Renewables and cheap nat gas are chipping away at the value of their existing generating assets, and energy savers like LEDs are causing demand to stagnate or shrink. These guys are the proverbial frightened animal backed into a corner. Rest assured that they are as good at lobbying as anyone, but the deck is stacking up against them in a bad way.

By: Eric Gold

Eric Gold — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 16:23:00 +0000

The utility is cherry picking it’s costs, but hiding the savings from PV. Sure, every homeowner should pay for infrastructure. The utility however should also PAY the PV owner when capitalization costs are reduced, when carbon costs are reduced, and when peak kWh costs are reduced.

APS is not negotiating in good faith.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 15:25:00 +0000

Republicans in Georgia would, I’m sure rail against ‘big government’ and be all for the free market. Yet, they let their state government work hand in hand with the utility monopoly to keep electricity prices high and keep competitors out of the market.

They allow the utility to overcharge customers for electricity and use that ill-gotten money to be used to build new nuclear reactors (which will almost certainly drive the cost of electricity even higher).

It’s so bad in Georgia that even the Tea Party has been working to allow solar on the grid.

By: JamesWimberley

JamesWimberley — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:36:00 +0000

The battles in Georgia and Arizona are easy to follow because they have stuck to the old model of one vertically-integrated monopoly utility. You would expect these conservative states to have adopted the Thatcherite separation of generation and transmisssion, as in Texas. In such a system, the fossil generators (and even wind ones, as in Spain) have the same interest in blocking distributed solar, but less leverage.