Idaho PUC Blocks Action To Cut Payments To Solar Owners From $.10 To $.04/kWh

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has rejected a proposed settlement that would have reduced the credits customers receive from Idaho Power when they generate their own electricity using rooftop solar panels. The three-member PUC said Friday in a written statement that the public wasn’t adequately notified or aware the agreement might result in significant changes to Idaho Power’s net-metering program.

“We applaud the commission standing up for existing solar owners,” Ben Otto of the Idaho Conservation League said in a statement. The ICL participated in the settlement talks but did not sign the agreement.

EDIT

Idaho Power buys or produces electricity at a cost of 3 cents per kilowatt hour. It pays an additional 7 cents for the cost of the electric transmission grid and other expenses. The issue was whether Idaho Power should pay solar customers the 3-cent wholesale rate or the 10-cent retail rate.

Under the settlement agreement, Idaho Power would have paid 8.7 cents per kilowatt hour in credits that solar generators would get when they add electricity to the grid for at least the next two years. The parties would have returned to the issue every two years for eight years, when the rate would have been reduced to 4.4 cents. Customers interested in adding rooftop solar panels to their homes complained that the settlement terms would have made it difficult to recoup their costs. Companies that sell and install solar panels, which employ 557 people in Idaho, said they were worried about suffering a significant downturn in business.

EDIT

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/business/article238598113.html