El Paso council rejects Texas utility's proposal to create solar customer class

Dive Brief:

El Paso's City Council has unanimously rejected Texas-based El Paso Electric's (EPE) proposal to increase rates, monthly charges and create a new solar customer class, KFOX 14 reports.
The El Paso City Council was one of several local councils to reject EPE's proposed changes. Opposition to the proposals was led by solar advocates.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) will have the final say on the average 10.98% bill increase across EPE rate classes. The proposed revenue increase of $71.5 million would raise the average monthly residential bill $8.41, from $71 to $79.41, according to EPE Spokesperson George De La Torre.
While residential customers’ monthly charge would increase from $5 to $10, the new solar customer class’s monthly charge would go from $5 to $15. Solar customers would also have a demand charge but would have a decreased volumetric rate, resulting in an overall average monthly bill increase of $12.

Dive Insight:

This isn't the first time EPE has had its proposals to add or increase charges on residential customers with distributed generation rejected. Just last month, New Mexico regulators rejected a proposal from EPE to place a monthly charge on residential solar users. The proposal is part of a trend in the sector of utilities proposing to add or increase fixed charges, especially for solar owners.

For this proposal, the total rate change package would cover the utility’s $1.3 billion infrastructure investment since 2009. The 10.98% class-wide impact includes a 16.10% per kWh rate increase that is mitigated by an unchanged fuel charge tariff, De La Torre said.

The proposed demand charge for solar customers would be $3.89 per kW per month and assumes an average system size of 3.5 kW to 5 kW, De La Torre said. Solar advocates opposed the changes because they would take solar owners’ current average $45 per month bill to $57 per month and because of the amounts and the changes in the rate design.

The proposed volumetric rate decrease for solar customers varies. Currently, it is $0.08745 per kWh in the summer and $0.07745 per kWh in the winter. It would go to $0.05842 per kWh for solar owning customers’ first 500 kWh in the summer, to $0.06342 for all other summer kWh, and to $0.04842 for winter kWh, according to EPE.

A hearing on EPE's proposal will be held in Austin on Jan. 26.