RENO, Nev. — The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) heard about a controversial application from NV Energy that would change the way new rooftop solar customers are billed in Nevada.
New NV Energy solar customers could face higher bills depending on how the PUCN votes on NV Energy’s application that would change the way it calculates net metering.
“What we’re proposing is to move our current system, which is a monthly netting system, a monthly billing system essentially, to a 15-minute system. And what that does is captures the cost that a system is generating in more real time by moving it to 15 minutes,” Director of Corporate Communications for NV Energy Katie Nannini said.
According to NV Energy, the proposed policy is more balanced and will save non-solar customers more by only crediting new solar customers for solar energy exported to the grid during 15-minute windows.
“The current system is really inequitable because what’s happened is customers who do not have rooftop on their homes are actually subsidizing the cost it is for those who do,” Nannini said.
Part of the incentive for rooftop solar has been the savings customers get from their credits for excess energy generated. But local stakeholders say the proposed changes would reduce that incentive and potentially stop customers from switching to rooftop solar altogether.
“NV Energy is proposing to gut what little benefit we would get from producing more solar than we need and putting it back into the grid, and I’m very disheartened by it,” NV Energy customer Cathy Fulkerson, who has been considering switching to rooftop solar, said.
Local environmental groups also say the policy could have a negative impact on a much larger level.
“We know that Reno is the fastest-warming city in the country, and climate change is a big part of that. So we need to do as much as we can to take action against climate change,” Toiyabe Chapter Director for the Sierra Club Olivia Tanager said.
It’s now up to the PUCN to approve or deny NV Energy’s application. That decision isn’t expected to be made for a few months.