07-24-2015, 05:21 PM
(07-24-2015, 06:49 AM)dmcowen674 Wrote: Pella Cooperative Electric sent out a notification on June 18 alerting customers that the “facilities fee,” which is the fixed part of the monthly bill, will triple from $27.50 per month to $85 per month – but only for customers with solar panels or another source of their own generation.
Bryce Engbers, whose hog-confinement operation accounts for three of the 12 distributed generators now on Pella's system, said that he's done the math and foresees removing the solar panels on his home and his two hog barns
Last year, Engbers said, the 3.5-kilowatt system on his home produced about 5,320 kilowatt hours of power. At 12 cents per kilowatt hour, that's a savings of $638, he said – compared with the $85 monthly fee, which over the course of a year would amount to $1,020.
“As you can see, this fee makes my home system absolutely and totally worthless,” he said. “In fact, I will have them de-install it, or I will be losing $400 a year.”
[url=http://midwestenergynews.com/2015/07/23/iowa-farmer-says-hell-remove-solar-if-co-ops-85-fixed-charge-stands/][/url]
He's paying a $57.50 higher monthly base charge, and he is saving $53.16 a month generating his own power. Could be the utility has "some" idea what they stand to lose from the solar, those numbers are pretty similar.
The article is also incorrect in that it doesn't recognize that he would have paid $330 of that $1020 anyway, so he's really about breaking even. (and still doing his part to be "green" and reduce his carbon footprint)
The only way you have a point is if you know for sure that profits on the energy consumption aren't part of what the power company needs to not lose money delivering and maintaining their service to the farm. I don't know if this is true or not, but it could be so I'm not going to just assume the company is evil and profiteering.
Like I said, I'm a realist and what I know of business is that usually there's a cost of doing business, and pricing is set to maintain a profit margin above that. Could be the solar panels make those customers unprofitable, and whether it's other customers or the utility, someone needs to make up the shortfall.