SC solar homeowners need to pay their share for the energy grid

Although not a base load source of power or a stand-alone answer to our energy needs, solar power is an important part of our state’s clean-energy arsenal. Since our Legislature passed the Distributed Energy Resource Program Act in 2014, the solar industry has grown in South Carolina, adding around 3,000 jobs and increasing the number of people who’ve leased solar panels for their homes by about 4,000. In fact, South Carolina climbed the most of any state last year in the Solar Energy Industries Association’s annual ranking of solar capacity, from 27th to 18th.

That is huge growth, and while it should continue, it needs to do so in a way that doesn’t favor some customers over others.

As a former S.C. public service commissioner, I believe it would be wrong to make any changes that increase the amount of subsidized, anti-competitive rates energy companies have to pay for rooftop solar.

When we pay our energy bills, we are paying for more than just the electricity we use. We are also paying an additional fixed cost that helps maintain the wires, poles and other infrastructure that make up the energy grid.

Under a policy called net metering, homeowners with rooftop solar can sell excess energy generated by their solar panels back to electric companies at the full retail rate. This means that although they are connected to the energy grid and rely on the energy it provides when the sun isn’t shining, homes with rooftop solar are not paying the fixed costs to help maintain the wires, poles and other infrastructure that make up the grid. Those costs are falling disproportionately on energy customers without rooftop solar, who often do not have the thousands of dollars it takes to buy or lease rooftop solar panels. Clearly, these policies should not become more widespread.

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The 2014 law put caps in place to ensure that, once the rooftop solar industry was stimulated, it would no longer be subsidized. Given the success of the solar industry in the state, there are many who would suggest that day has arrived. We need to ensure that any policy changes to net metering do not raise the cap on homes covered by the law or in other ways go back on the agreement requiring energy companies to offer additional subsidies to rooftop solar owners, who already benefit from federal and state tax credits and increasingly lower solar costs.

This conversation isn’t happening just in South Carolina, but across the country as many states reexamine their policies around how best to compensate customers who generate energy through rooftop solar. Ideas range from paying the rooftop solar customers the cost the utilities avoid by not having to purchase or generate electricity to paying them an amount less than retail that also recognizes the costs associated with being connecting to the grid.

As the solar industry continues to grow and contribute even more energy to our grid, it’s important to ensure that customers without rooftop solar panels are not seeing increases to their monthly power bill because of this — especially those who cannot afford to pay more.

All South Carolinians who rely on our energy grid should be expected to contribute equally to its upkeep. Our elected officials msut not create further disparity among energy customers by shifting this cost to only some customers. Customers who don’t have rooftop solar, whether by choice or because they simply can’t afford it, should not have to pay for the costs of the wires, poles and other infrastructure of the grid for those who do have rooftop solar.

This story was originally published May 14, 2018 at 12:12 PM with the headline "SC solar homeowners need to pay their share for the energy grid."