Which really makes me wonder about what was happening behind closed doors. Did EPE know that they were going to "pull the rug from under" solar homeowners, as the article rightly puts it, by suddenly doing away with net-metering? Did the City know? Didn't the City hire Norman Gordon, an attorney specializing in utilities to lead negotiations? Did Gordon know what was coming?
Also, did EPE think solar homeowners were going to take it lying down?
The article by Marty Schladen:
The City Council and El Paso Electric Co. on Tuesday agreed to a package of solar subsidies through the end of the year.
The package is intended to encourage residents to keep putting solar panels on their homes as the city and the power company try to persuade the state Legislature to build another package of incentives into Texas law.
Residents who have invested tens of thousands of dollars in solar power had the rug pulled out from under them last year when the Public Utility Commission changed the billing rules at the behest of the Texas Legislature.
The City Council on Tuesday voted to approve increased rebates for those who install solar panels and to ask the Legislature -- in cooperation with the electric company -- to essentially allow El Paso Electric to bill customers the way it had been.
Tony Reyes, a resident with solar panels on his home, was not thrilled with the agreement.
But he said it again makes financial sense for homeowners and businesses to install solar panels in the Sun City.
"This doesn't make everybody happy, but it's a way of going forward," said Norman Gordon, the attorney who represents the city in utility issues.
Under the old "net-metering" rules, the electric company settled up with solar customers
at the end of the month.
If customers used more kilowatt power than their panels generated, they paid El Paso Electric the difference at a retail rate.
If customers' panels generated more power than they used, the electric company paid the difference to the customer at the much-lower wholesale rate.
Last summer, the Public Utility Commission changed the rules.
Now every kilowatt-hour generated by a solar panel is valued at the much-lower wholesale rate, making the panels themselves less valuable.
Under the agreement ratified Tuesday, El Paso Electric agreed not to charge customers with solar panels under the new system for bills generated before the start of this month.
The power company also agreed to increase rebates for owners of solar panels by as much as a dollar per watt, bringing the maximum rebate to $3 per watt. For the owner of a 2- kilowatt solar system, that's a maximum rebate of $6,000.
Richard Fleager, senior vice president of El Paso Electric, said shareholders in his company cover $2,000 of that rebate and $4,000 is passed along to ratepayers.
If the 2-kilowatt system cost $15,000, the remaining $9,000 of its cost is eligible for a 30 percent federal tax credit, Fleager said.
City Rep. Eddie Holguin was unhappy that ratepayers have to subsidize solar-panel rebates and was the sole member of the City Council to vote against Tuesday's agreement.
As part of that agreement, the city and the electric company will jointly ask the Legislature to allow the region to go back to a form of net metering.
Solar proponents are unhappy that the legislation would cap the amount of solar generation that can be installed and that customers would be paid at a lower rate for their solar power than they would have to pay the power company for its power.
Marty Schladen may be reached at mschladen@elpasotimes.com; 546-6127.
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