Others involved in closed-door negotiations that produced the settlement declined to discuss its details, including the proposed use of Energy Balancing Account charges. вЂњWhen we buy something, our customers buy it,вЂќВ Hall said, вЂњand this is a mechanism that enables us to recover unexpected costs.вЂќ Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Spencer Hall said it makes sense to use the Energy Balancing Account to charge these new fees because the amount of surplus power that residential solar panels generate tends to fluctuate and is difficult to predict. Those charges would be applied to customersвЂ™ power bills via something called theВ Energy Balancing Account, a mechanism previously allowed by state regulators to let Rocky Mountain Power add surcharges to customersвЂ™ power bills when it gets hit with unexpected expenses, such as a sudden spikes in the cost of natural gas for its power plants. So, under the proposed settlement, to recoup those added costs from paying above market rates for electricity, Rocky Mountain Power would be allowed to charge additional fees to all its Utah customers - in effect, some argue, forcing non-solar customers to subsidize higher prices paid to solar customers. Rocky Mountain Power argues it could buy solar power on the open market for just 3 cents per kilowatt hour - but state law effectively requires the utility to buy its residential customersвЂ™ surplus power at a higher rate. For the next three years, they will receive a credit worth a little over 9 cents per kilowatt hour of surplus power.

Those who sign up after that deadline will be considered вЂњtransitionвЂќ solar customers.

That would bring them credits on their bills worth about 10 cents per kilowatt hour of surplus power their rooftop panels generate. 15, 2017, will be grandfathered into the utilityвЂ™s existing pay-back program for nearly 20 years.

If the current terms are approved, solar customers who have signed up for Rocky Mountain PowerвЂ™s net metering program before Nov. The state Public Service Commission (PSC) is set to review the settlement later this month. вЂњUtah customers will have to pay additional charges that would not exist in the absence of the ,вЂќ Steven Michel, chief of policy development for environmental group Western Resource Advocates, wrote in testimony submitted to UtahвЂ™s Public Service Commission.ДЄnd there is still no evidence, Michel said, that Rocky Mountain Power needs this income to cover the costs of services associated with residential rooftop solar arrays. But representatives from the few groups opposing the settlement argue it is unfair to non-solar customers. The settlementвЂ™s authors say the charge is only temporary and would amount to a few cents on customerвЂ™s monthly bills at most. Advocates feared the plan to introduce a three-part billing structure for solar households had the potential to halt the industryвЂ™s growth.Д«ut the fine print of the new agreement - which hinges on how solar residential customers get reimbursed under what is called вЂњnet meteringвЂќВ - includes a provision that would allow Rocky Mountain Power to pay those power credits with money raised by increasing the power bills of all Utahns. Solar industry leaders and other clean-energy advocates cut the compromise deal with the stateвЂ™s largest utility in an effort to replace an earlier Rocky Mountain Power proposal. The settlement has been praised for preserving, at least for now, most of the financial credits that customers with rooftop solar arrays receive from Rocky Mountain Power when they generate surplus electricity. UtahвЂ™s Rocky Mountain Power customers could end up paying more directly for power generated by their neighborsвЂ™ solar panels under the terms of the companyвЂ™s recent settlement with the solar industry.

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