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Even as Berkshire Hathaway Energy becomes one of the biggest players in utility scale renewable energy, including owning one of the world’s largest solar farms located in San Luis Obispo County, California, Berkshire continues to battle residential rooftop solar.
Berkshire’s utility, NV Energy, which it purchased in 2013, has been trying to slow the growth of residential solar in Nevada, a state with an average of 294 annual days of sunshine.
NV Energy has been trying to hold the line on the state’s net energy metering (NEM) cap of 235 megawatts, which rooftop solar companies claim means the loss of thousands of jobs now that the cap for 2015 has been reached.
Proof of their fears have come true. Vivint Solar, the nation’s number two U.S. rooftop solar installer, has already left Nevada, after only opening for business in July 2015.
A 3-Tiered Rate Structure
NV Energy, which serves 1.3 million customers throughout Nevada, has been pushing for a new 3-tiered rate structure.
In its application before the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, Nevada Power, a wholly-owned subsidiary of NV Energy, notes that “Nevada Power’s data demonstrates that customers who install renewable distributed generation have unique load and cost characteristics. Net metering customers are partial requirements customers requiring a standby aspect to their electrical service, have different metering and customer service and customer accounting requirements, and have different load factors and load levels.”
The company also says that rates must be “just, reasonable and fair to all customers and reduce the shifting of costs from customer-generators to other customers…”
Buy Solar, Pay More?
One of the areas of dispute with rooftop solar owners is on fees that NV Energy wants to add, including a demand charge. The charge is particularly unpopular and solar advocates assert that it could actually make rooftop solar unviable, as the costs could actually be higher than the electricity purchased from the utility.
The utility acknowledges that situation, noting:
“To be clear, those who choose to install renewable distributed generation (“DG”) can reduce their Nevada Power bill under the NEM2 rules and rates, even though a customer who installs renewable DG might end up paying more for energy when the cost of buying or leasing the DG system, or purchasing the output of the DG system is taken into consideration.”
In addition to the demand charge, NV Energy has proposed a monthly basic service charge and an energy charge.
In NV Power’s application the utility is asking for “four new standard net metering schedules, four new optional net metering schedules, a new net metering rider, seven modified schedules and modifications to Rule 9 and 15…”
The utility asserts the demand charge and other proposed fees are necessary, as many customers are paying little or no electric bill, even as they continue to utilize the existing grid structure to sell back electricity generated by rooftop solar and to draw on utility generated electricity at night.
Not So Fast
During its hearing on August 26, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada was in no hurry to implement the proposed demand charge and put off any decision. NV Power had pushed for an interim order to make the new charges effective on September 15, 2015. The lack of approval represented a setback for NV Energy, and an at least temporary victory for rooftop solar companies and their customers.
Opposition from Senator Reid
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada has very publicly opposed NV Energy’s position.
“This challenge should begin by properly valuing rooftop solar, properly valuing energy efficiency and properly valuing other distributed sources of clean energy,” Reid said at his eighth annual National Clean Energy Summit. “Ignoring these resources or treating them as a burden makes as much sense as the Washington Nationals benching Bryce Harper. Rather than fighting change, utilities should be integrating new technologies into their business models.”
Reid added:
“If NV Energy continues on the path they’re on, they’re going to lose.”
© 2015 David Mazor
Disclosure: David Mazor is a freelance writer focusing on Berkshire Hathaway. The author is long in Berkshire Hathaway, and this article is not a recommendation on whether to buy or sell the stock. The information contained in this article should not be construed as personalized or in