The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has postponed a decision on whether to reduce rooftop-solar incentives for users with multiple meters until Nov. 2. The delay comes after local clean energy advocates complained the move would reduce incentives for adopting solar and set back the state’s clean energy goals.
Reimagine Power, a local energy advocacy group, helped galvanize opposition from utility customers across the state, including agricultural organizations, renters’ rights groups, school districts and environmental advocates.
“The extension is likely the result of all the public pressure, hundreds and hundreds of personal communications, op-eds and editorials that the CPUC — and Governor who appoints the commissioners — received from everyone under the sun, that the decision must be amended,” Igor Tregub, Reimagine’s Strategic Partnership Director, told local media outlets. “I think the decision to postpone the meeting for three weeks is a positive one. Of course, I don’t know what their final decision will be.”
The CPUC was originally scheduled to issue a decision on Oct. 12 on the virtual net metering tariff, which if approved would characterize all consumed power as coming from the utility, billed at the full retail rate, and all generated power as exported to the utility, sold at the lower wholesale rate, reducing the feasibility of rooftop solar for multiple-meter customers.