Net-metering system is fair the way it is

By Gary Musser, Las Vegas

Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2015 | 2 a.m.

Say this to yourself three times: Solar roofs are not wholesalers to NV Energy; they are for homes. The current net-metering program is fair for all. Currently, when installed, solar roofs are limited to 100 percent of the kilowatt-hours the homeowner used the previous year. Doesn’t that sound like the program is devoted to each home and not a wholesaler for NV Energy?

Of course, there are times when the solar roof produces more than can be used. In these times, the extra kilowatt-hours are loaned to NV Energy to be sold to a neighbor. On hot days, solar roofs, by necessity, provide clean kilowatt-hours to NV Energy so NV Energy doesn’t have to buy expensive, carbon-based power from a wholesaler or suffer brownouts. That is a good deal for NV Energy and all ratepayers.

At night or when it’s cloudy, the solar roof owner draws kilowatt-hours from NV Energy. However, if the owner uses more than has been loaned, the owner pays the going rate.

For this two-way business deal, solar roof owners pay NV Energy about $20 a month plus any extra for electricity they used over the amount they have loaned NV Energy. That is a good deal for NV Energy.

If there is any doubt of NV Energy’s motives in submitting a 500-page rate document to the Public Utilities Commission, a must-read article by Charles Cicchetti, “NV Energy employs anti-competitive measures to monopolize the sun,” appeared Aug. 11 on page 2 of the Sun.