SolarCity CEO Vows Fight Against NPUC Net Metering Decision
The net metering battle in Nevada has not yet ended, states SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive on a company blog.
In a blog post headlined, “SolarCity will continue to fight controversial net metering legislation in Nevada.
“I have promised SolarCity’s Nevada employees and customers that I will continue to fight for them. I believe when they hear and understand the facts, all Nevadans will join the fight against this unfair decision. This governor and his commissioners will hear more from all of us in the coming days. Stay tuned,” he wrote.
The state’s Public Utilities Commission (NPUC) has backed plans to increase fees for net metering customers and reduce returns. These plans will be applied retroactively. This move led leading installers like SolarCity and Sunrun to announce they would cease operating in Nevada, with the loss of more than a thousand jobs.
Add a class action lawsuit to the muddy waters of Nevada’s PUC
A class action lawsuit has already been launched by two solar customers against the NPUC net metering decision, alleging monopoly utility NV Energy proposed alterations.
An appeal to delay the implementation of the new regime was unanimously refused last week by the NPUC.
In a PV-Tech article, Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval said he feared it was illegal for him to interfere in the PUC’s decision. Widespread opposition to the NPUC measures has come from Hollywood actor Mark Ruffalo, presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and protesting solar customers.
Rive wrote the NPUC “…chose to ignore hours of testimony from solar customers and workers, begging them to delay their decision to end rooftop solar in Nevada. As I’ve said before, the decision was a massive bait and switch. After encouraging thousands of Nevadans to go solar, the government dramatically increased their costs after the fact. Even worse, the Public Utilities Commission continues to hide the real impact of the decision from Nevadans.”
In the meantime, Utility Dive reports the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada has released a draft order Wednesday evening stating regulators will review a provision in a recent decision on solar net metering that applies new rates and charges to existing rooftop systems, as well as new ones.
The draft order echoes a request by the the Nevada Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) to reexamine the grandfathering provision.
As I have written before, this distributed energy battle for rooftop solar appears to be far from finished.
Image: Rooftop solar panels via Shutterstock
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Latest CleanTechnica.TV Video
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.
