Written by LISA RUTHERFORD, Ivins, Utah.
St. George News
August 15, 2017
Solar is finally taking hold in Washington County and in Utah in general. In fact, Utah is the 6th largest solar state in the nation, which surprised me. Even conservative Utah Congresswoman Mia Love’s city of Saratoga Springs, where she served as mayor, is bursting with rooftop solar.
But the future of solar may be at risk if Utah’s Public Service Commission doesn’t make the right decision regarding a rate hike requested by Rocky Mountain Power.
I drove to Salt Lake City with my partner Paul Van Dam for an August 9 public hearing at which the Public Service Commission took oral comments from citizens about rooftop solar and RMP’s proposed rate increase for those who have solar or would get solar in the future. We both took time before the meeting to bone up on the details pertaining to the PSC Docket 14-035-114 and it was quite enlightening.
Rocky Mountain Power (RMP) is arguing that non-solar customers are subsidizing those who have roof top solar thus necessitating, they feel, a rate increase, in all fairness (of course!) to their non-solar customers. This new docket resulted from RMP’s 2014 general rate case (Docket No. 13-035-184) which generated opposition and resulted in the PSC’s requirement that the Company’s net metering program costs and benefits be analyzed.
Read the full LTE here.