Calif. solar energy units exempted from exit fee

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: John Adams <jadams01 () sprynet com>
Date: Sat, 05 Apr 2003 15:22:07 -0500
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP? Calif. solar energy units exempted from exit fee

http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/04/03/rtr929924.html

Calif. solar energy units exempted from exit fee
Reuters, 04.03.03, 5:50 PM ET

By Leonard Anderson

SAN FRANCISCO, April 3 (Reuters) - Solar energy advocates won a victory
on Thursday when California regulators voted to exempt utility
customers running their own small solar electric systems from paying an
"exit fee" to leave the state grid.

The vote by the California Public Utilities Commission capped weeks of
attacks on the fee by the renewable energy industry, environmentalists,
consumers and lawmakers lobbying for more renewable energy in the state
hammered by a power crisis in 2000-2001.

Owners of renewable energy systems larger than 1 megawatt, however,
will have to pay a special surcharge to help California retire a $12
billion bond issue sold last November to raise cash to pay for power
supplies during the state's energy crisis.

The decision Thursday did not set any charges but they are expected to
be nominal.

Efficient systems powered by the sun, wind or fuel cells generating
less than 1 megawatt of electricity and installed before Jan. 17, 2001,
are exempt from a charge. One megawatt is power for about 1,000 homes.

There are an estimated 8,000 small sun-powered generators in California
producing electricity for homes and small businesses, according to
solar industry officials.

Many are highly efficient "net metering" systems, which means they put
surplus electricity back on the California grid while their utility
meter spins backward.

Other self-generators also will pay a charge.

The "exit fee" debate was a hangover from California's energy crisis
that cost the state billions of dollars, bankrupted PG&E Corp.'s (nyse:
PCG - news - people) Pacific Gas & Electric utility unit and subjected
millions of Californians to blackouts.

The CPUC is working on a number of cases that aim to impose charges on
customers who abandoned their utilities during the state's doomed fling
with deregulation to buy power from other energy companies.

Otherwise, other utility customers will be stuck with the tab for the
$12 billion bond issue and long-term power contracts California
negotiated during the emergency.

CPUC President Michael Peevey said "California wants to encourage self
generation and self sufficiency ... Certain types of clean, renewable
energy should be preferred by all of us. It's reasonable to offer some
exemptions (from charges) to help the technologies grow."

An exit fee on solar customers "would have been at odds with the
state's goal of making clean, reliable renewable energy a great portion
of California's energy mix," said Karl Smith, a director of the
California Solar Energy Industry Association.

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

All the best,

    John A
    see me fulminate at http://www.jzip.org/


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