Everything Solar Forum

Our connect fee in PA from PPL is about $15/month. They are following the recent (A decade or two) separation of transmission, distribution from generation (IE the fuel). The raise in connect fee is the shift to a Pay to play scheme, which is the very thing the Telecom industry did decades ago. Ironically the book 'California Burning' which deals obviously with CA, goes into the history of deregulation and adjoined "methods" that go along with it. The threat of Demand Destruction from non utility RE has them scrambling for cash flows anyway they can get it. 

Comparing your recent reality to the electricity market across the US, it really does not scream anti RE as such. When you start seeing legislated approvals from the PUC entities that allow solar tariffs for RE gen and/or solar connection ONLY fees, then you can start screaming big time. To me, the biggest kick in the ass from your "utility" against RE was the dropping of net metering. That gets them free power they can sell to you neighbor, with a reduction in load to the grid too boot. They still loose the sell to you for your load, but they may get the demand destruction reduced with a little extra profit from your over production. 

Remember a utility is just a regulated Monopoly. If you deregulate a utility, you go back to a straight up monopoly, Parker Brothers rules. Last man standing. The masses get screwed. 

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william fitch
Owner
www.WeAreSolar.com
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A clarification to my original post.

Even though JEA eliminated net metering, they do give us credit for each kWh we export to them which is equal to the fuel cost per kWh which varies monthly.  So, the power that they get from me costs them about 1/3 of what they sell it to my neighbor for.

Agree that "The threat of Demand Destruction from non-utility RE has them scrambling for cash flows anyway they can get it."  JEA has put a bunch of their eggs in the Vogtle nuclear plant basket in Georgia which is turning out to be very expensive.  So that begs the question, why in the world would they LOWER the Energy Charge per kWh?  Cheaper energy will not motivate us to invest in solar.

Maybe I've read to many Libertarian books on the subject, There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL), haha.

"Cheaper energy will not motivate us to invest in solar."

To be clear, they do not WANT YOU INVESTING IN ANYTHING" that they don't own the production on. Raising connect fees is a way to circumvent lost revenue through actual electricity usage. Again the telecom industry. We really don't care how much "TIME" you use on your "phone". If you want to make a single phone call or anything else, you will pay us $60 a month per line to just have the CAPABILITY, thus, pay to play. This is the ultimate way to neuter demand destruction. The only off ramp for this is off grid power which do to seasonal variation is not achievable for most (Their climate). Ironically, places that are hot have a way easier time finding a path to off-grid than Winter locations that are still cold enough, because production and use are proportional rather than inversely proportional (Winter).

Separating transmission from demand from generation is another way even in a net metering environment to pay the generator a way smaller amount than they charge you for the same actual amount of energy. This is pretty straight forward "Capitalistic" stuff. A way to get around the regulations. 

As far as, "Maybe I've read to many Libertarian books on the subject", I think I will leave that cracked open door where it is.....

What you are experiencing is trying to fight entities that are way bigger than "City Hall" and not on the same team. You are fighting CW in this point in time, where they own city hall as well.