CPS's plan for solar (article) (pay, offer, packages)

[bigtexan99]

Originally Posted by goodmanm

I think the best thing folks can do here is get their city council member on it.

I think the problem is that the city council IS in on it.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by bigtexan99

I think the problem is that the city council IS in on it.

City council may not openly admit it, but it's logical that they would have initiated the rollback. And it was a politically safe thing to do since there's a lot more solar apathy than solar activism in town.

To me, the silence from the mayor and council on the issue speaks volumes.

[sleeptech210]

This is why I can't stand Castro! Dude won't fight for his people he just thinks of ways to tax us! What people need to do is get together and fight! Or try and get a program going to get more people on solar energy and tell cps to pound sand! I'm currently investing in solar energy and trying my hardest to cut cps out completely!

[datacity]

I wonder if CPS publishes a list of how residential solar installations are distributed around the city, particularly by zip code. Take such a list and overlay income by zip code and you may see a pattern. Just a guess on my part, but I am guessing the result speaks to why council is not outraged.

As for the argument on infrastructure cost that needs to be shared... well why not make the connection charge that everyone pays reflect the fully-burdened cost of all infrastructure and maintenance and any other fixed costs? Then price electricity only based on its procurement cost, plus maybe a small upcharge to pay for energy efficiency programs and other items that correspond to energy consumption or procurement?

Oh, but then you might not be able to subsidize a portion of the fixed costs for some by including it as part of the variable cost of extra electricity used by others. Again, purely a guess on my part, as is how the money that flows to city coffers from CPS is spent vs from where it is collected.

I just wish the data was available publicly so one can make an educated analysis instead of just speculating.

Bottom line: despite all these games, I still like CPS compared to a private supplier given the natural monopoly that is electrical service, but changing the game like this is not right.

They should have had a plan from the get go that stated something like: "If you get a subsidy for solar installation, you will get suncredit. If you do not get a subsidy, then you get net metering." Turning back the clock shows only one thing, that the bonuses were not as deserved since this is a dumb move. It is like at&t and Verizon first saying unlimited data. then saying metered data.

[Bo]

Originally Posted by datacity

I wonder if CPS publishes a list of how residential solar installations are distributed around the city, particularly by zip code. Take such a list and overlay income by zip code and you may see a pattern. Just a guess on my part, but I am guessing the result speaks to why council is not outraged.

I saw a presentation by Solar San Antonio last year. The average solar installation requires a ~$30,000 cash outlay. There are rebates available (for more than half of it at that time), but you have to spend the money first to get it rebated.

[John911]

The now neutered mysa.com just posted this within the last hour. It should be a headline, but its buried way down on the main page.... (no surprise?)

CPS backs away from plan to slash solar incentive - San Antonio Express-News

Perhaps, somebody got scared?

[Bo]

Originally Posted by John911

The now neutered mysa.com just posted this within the last hour. It should be a headline, but its buried way down on the main page.... (no surprise?)

CPS backs away from plan to slash solar incentive - San Antonio Express-News

I'd call it a hollow victory. The promise to revisit the cuts in a year or so make it impossible to estimate the amount of time it would take to recover your investment.

It's like signing up for a 30-year mortgage with a built in provision that the lender will extend the term of the mortgage by an unknown number of months at some point in the future. All you know is that you'll get the loan paid off someday and it will take longer than you thought it would at the time you sign the papers.

I have neighbors with solar panels and I would like lower utility bills as much as anyone, but this certainly doesn't make me want to run out and sign up to add solar to my house.

[samvp]

Originally Posted by John911

The now neutered mysa.com just posted this within the last hour. It should be a headline, but its buried way down on the main page.... (no surprise?)

CPS backs away from plan to slash solar incentive - San Antonio Express-News

Perhaps, somebody got scared?

Now neutered? Don't get that comment. Did I miss something happen to the site?

[John911]

Originally Posted by samvp

Now neutered? Don't get that comment. Did I miss something happen to the site?

MODERATORS, please pardon the hijack.... I'm answering as requested...

ExpressNews.com was launched earlier this week. All of their columnists, resources and products have been diverted to this 'premium subscription' only online electronic rendition of their printed product. It boasts 24 hour updates and most things that we became accustomed to reading on mysa.com I have been a long time fan of mysa.com and only occasionally picked up a newspaper because what I was reading in print I had already read the day before online.

Personally, this turn of events makes me even more happy that I didn't commit to a 'lucrative' advertising package with mysa.com Their product is now a shell of what it used to be. It won't be long before their daily hit count tanks.

Being an occasional customer of the Express-News with their cost-cutting measures, ie paper size, drop of content and features, etc., this effort seems like a desperate effort to roll with the changes after the fact.

If it was their intent to increase revenue, I think they will be sadly mistaken.

I'm not subscribing.

Back to normal programming...

[samvp]

Originally Posted by John911

MODERATORS, please pardon the hijack.... I'm answering as requested...

ExpressNews.com was launched earlier this week. All of their columnists, resources and products have been diverted to this 'premium subscription' only online electronic rendition of their printed product. It boasts 24 hour updates and most things that we became accustomed to reading on mysa.com I have been a long time fan of mysa.com and only occasionally picked up a newspaper because what I was reading in print I had already read the day before online.

Personally, this turn of events makes me even more happy that I didn't commit to a 'lucrative' advertising package with mysa.com Their product is now a shell of what it used to be. It won't be long before their daily hit count tanks.

Being an occasional customer of the Express-News with their cost-cutting measures, ie paper size, drop of content and features, etc., this effort seems like a desperate effort to roll with the changes after the fact.

If it was their intent to increase revenue, I think they will be sadly mistaken.

I'm not subscribing.

Back to normal programming...

Oh yeah, I agree. The pay wall is going to fall for them. And their packages are whack. You can either pay for the digital service or you can pay for the paper and the digital service. Why they don't after the digital service for current paper customers.