Assembly to hold its first hearing on rooftop solar

By Kyle Roerink

Wednesday, May 20, 2015 | 2 a.m.

For the rooftop solar industry, today is one of the few high marks in the legislative session.

Lawmakers in the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee will debate a bill addressing the controversial solar cap limiting how many consumers can participate in a program called net metering. The policy allows homeowners to power their homes and provide energy to the grid with solar panels.

NV Energy gives net metering customers a credit on their bills for generating the electricity. The utility says that credit is a subsidy.

The cap limiting participation sits at 3 percent, and the utility says it will cost its ratepayers $8 million for every percentage point the cap increases. More than 2,500 Nevadans participate in the program. The solar industry says the cap will be hit by fall, potentially killing a majority of the 6,000 jobs the industry has helped create in the state. The industry also says the policy provides a net benefit because it reduces consumption of carbon emissions and reduces the burden on NV Energy’s power plant infrastructure.

The measure arrives in the Assembly after unanimously passing the Senate over the weekend. Senate Bill 374 addresses construction issues, but lawmakers on Saturday adopted an amendment to shift regulatory authority of net metering from the Legislature to the Public Utilities Commission. The law currently mandates the Legislature to lift the cap, but the amendment gives the PUC the discretion to lift it. The bill gives the PUC the ability to structure new rates for solar customers on the utility’s service, demand and energy charges currently applied on power bills.

The solar cap has made local and national headlines, spurred rallies and prompted a wave of advertising from NV Energy and the solar industry. Lawmakers have said the measure is the most lobbied of the session next to Uber, the ride-sharing service trying to legalize its business model in Nevada. But unlike the two ride-share bills, which have had at least three hearings with public participation, there has not been one public hearing on net metering until today. There have been a series of meetings where solar and utility lobbyists met with lawmakers and Gov. Brian Sandoval on the matter.

At the beginning of the session there was a bill draft that requested raising the net metering cap to 10 percent. But lawmakers never introduced the bill publicly. Sen. Patricia Farley sponsored the amendment and said her measure was the only option she had to get a public debate on net metering.

"You don’t want to see an industry get hurt,” Farley said. "But at the same time it can’t be on the backs of the ratepayers. … This legislation puts net metering in the right public forum with the right individuals [the PUC] to make the right decisions."

The three months of inaction on the measure have been frustrating for companies like SolarCity and Sunrun, which lease solar installations to customers who want to participate in net metering. The bill leaves the solar industry in a precarious state even if it passes as currently written. The bill outlines no timeframe for the PUC to potentially lift the cap and impose new costs to solar customers.

"We look forward to the first public hearing on this matter to consider amendments to the NV Energy bill,” said Bryan Miller, senior vice president of public policy at Sunrun. "While compromise is the core of our democracy, SB374 is the NV Energy bill — not a compromise."

NV Energy is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, which is owned by the billionaire Warren Buffett. Berkshire Hathaway Energy has fought in states across the nation to either impose fees or eliminate net metering. It’s recently lost battles in Utah and Washington to impose fees on net metering customers.

The utility says it is trying to protect ratepayers and that the PUC is required to do so. The legislation will not affect the existing agreements current net metering customers have, said Shawn Elicegui, NV Energy senior vice president of regulatory and strategic planning.

"The commission has the discretion and obligation to set rates that are reasonable and equitable for all customers,” Elicegui said.