Lawsuit seeks to overturn ruling on rooftop solar rates

By Cy Ryan

Monday, March 21, 2016 | 11:59 a.m.

CARSON CITY — A group promoting solar energy has filed a lawsuit to overturn a decision by the state Public Utilities Commission that effectively raised the rate rooftop solar customers pay NV Energy.

The Alliance for Solar Choice says the PUC ruling “puts a stake in the heart of future rooftop solar development” and unjustly applies the new rate structure, which went into effect Jan. 1, to some 17,000 existing solar customers.

In December, the three-member panel voted to triple a fixed service charge over four years and slash the value of credits customers earn by generating excess electricity under a program known as net metering.

The commission argued the new rates were necessary to ensure solar customers, who do not purchase as much energy from the grid and avoid paying some of the fixed costs wrapped into electricity rates, were not shifting costs to other ratepayers.

The lawsuit, filed Friday, says the decision by the PUC was a “big win” for the utility at the expense of the solar users. It has also led to massive layoffs by rooftop solar companies that have fled Nevada, the lawsuit notes.

“Unless relief is granted by the court rooftop solar power generation may well cease to exist in Nevada,” the lawsuit says.

The PUC will now formally reply to the suit.