Georgia Power wants to charge you for your solar power (flat fee, 2013)

[noah]

You may have heard Clark Howard railing against this proposal Georgia Power is trying to get approved by the PSC. If not, WSB TV is doing a story on it tomorrow night on their evening news.

Not sure who to contact to voice concerns but now that solar makes economic sense it would be too bad to see Georgia Power crush the free market.

Georgia Power wants to charge you for your solar power | On the LAKE front

Do it yourself solar for just $4,000 | www.clarkhoward.com

Clark Howard:
In my home state of Georgia, a utility company called Georgia Power is attempting to get regulation through the state that would essentially make it impossible to install solar because of punitive fees. But the problem with that is when you squeeze too hard, people look for other ways to leave the grid. I currently have solar at home, so I'm looking for other off-the-grid alternatives as I write this.

The utilities that are trying to cheapshot us will find the marketplace responds, and they'll lose people entirely. Creating economic disincentives will force people off the grid.

[erick295]

Company officials argue the tariff is necessary because most solar users still require the power grid as a back-up when the sun isn’t shining. As solar use spreads, the company stands to collect less revenue from those customers. What doesn’t change is the cost to maintain the grid. Georgia Power says non-solar customers shouldn’t have to bear all the costs.

Makes sense to me. If you can't afford $20 a month for your share of the infrastructure, have your power disconnected. Problem solved.

[noah]

So because Ga Power will collect less revenue and they are scared to death of losing customers they want to impose fees. The thing is these users sell power back to the power company so they are completely losing customers and want a monopoly instead of competing.

PSC Chairman Chuck Eaton wondered if the tariff is about making up for lost revenue, why not consider new fees for any number of energy efficiency measures.

“What makes solar unique?” asked Eaton.

[MattCW]

This sounds like what happened with rail passenger transport. It became impossible for the private companies to continue to provide service once they were competing against their own customers, so the government had to step in and provide the public utility. Could we be about to see the same thing with power companies?

[noah]

I am surprised this didn't get more discussion

[westau]

Originally Posted by noah

I am surprised this didn't get more discussion

I don't think many people have solar power so many probably don't have much of an opinion on it because of that.

[ATLTJL]

Georgia is one of the states that allows HOAs to dictate to homeowners that they are not allowed to install solar panels.

Many other states have ruled this unconstitutional and HOA convenants are not allowed to prohibit them.

[magnetar]

I considered installing panels on my new home but forgot about it when I found out that Georgia's buy-back program is extremely limited, and there's a wait list to even try to get on it. Solar power purchase agreements aren't allowed in Georgia, so between the two of those you've eliminated pretty much all of the economic incentives for people to install home solar panels. At least the PSC is forcing them to buy some solar capacity.

[DJDeadParrot]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

Georgia is one of the states that allows HOAs to dictate to homeowners that they are not allowed to install solar panels.

Georgia gives HOAs quite a bit of power, don't they?

BTW, Georgia Power is partially lying about having to recoup costs through a new fee. All customers already pay a flat fee for "delivery" charges, in addition to the varying "supply" charges. This same logic is applied to falsely explain why energy-saving light bulbs cost more. At any rate [ha ha], its almost totally false for them to claim that solar homes necessitate additional maintenance on the grid that's not already in their budget. Yeah, they may lose overall revenue, but that's how consumer choice works.

[12 years in the utility industry]

[tikigod311]

Originally Posted by erick295

Makes sense to me. If you can't afford $20 a month for your share of the infrastructure, have your power disconnected. Problem solved.

This post makes a lot of sense. The infrastructure is extremely expensive to maintain. You should have to pay to have the benefit of using that infrastructure. Now, if you are selling the power back in the grid, that fee should be taken care of with the power you are selling back.

I get the feeling I'm not getting the full story from the Sierra Club or Ga Power. But hurray for solar power. One of the most exciting future technologies.