In yet another example of a power company seeking to extract additional payments from customers with home solar, LUMA Energy in Puerto Rico has said it will impose a $300 fee on all home-solar users connected to its electrical grid, according to W Journal.
The $300 charge would be applied to the 167,000 customers with home solar panels, netting LUMA millions of dollars. The power company has claimed that the purpose of the fee is to pay for a “technical interconnection study” that the power company claimed would “protect the stability of the system,” according to W Journal.
Puerto Rican government officials expressed skepticism over the fee.
“This charge arises from a somewhat creative interpretation on the part of LUMA to justify this charge to people who, like me and many other Puerto Ricans, already have home solar systems installed,” said Hiram Torres Montalvo, the secretary of public affairs, according to W Journal.
“This stems from their interpretation of a regulation that conflicts with other legal provisions,” Torres Montalvo added. “My assessment is that this interpretation is somewhat creative to justify an additional charge to customers.”
Meanwhile, a group of lawmakers from the Popular Democratic Party introduced a resolution that would compel the Energy Bureau to order LUMA not to impose the fee, W Journal reported.
The $300 fee was just the latest example of a power company seeking to either extract additional payments from home solar users or pay out less to home solar owners who have attached their panels to the electrical grid.
For example, in Virginia, Appalachian Power sought to lower the amount that it reimbursed residential solar panel owners for the excess power that they delivered to the grid by about 70%, a move that was struck down by state regulators after a multiyear battle.
In California, the state supreme court sided with those challenging California Public Utility Commission rules that essentially had the same effect, sending a legal challenge back to a lower court for reevaluation.
The common thread among the situations in Puerto Rico, Virginia, and California was that all three involved attempts by power companies to reduce the financial benefits of home solar.
Even so, home solar remains a great way to drop your energy bill to practically zero while also reducing planet-overheating pollution.
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