Last week a reader of Solar Power left a comment to one of my posts about the monthly fee Xcel Energy would charge from solar panel customers:
” (…) But, we have bad news for Denver. The new fee proposed by Xcel Energy would punish new customers for getting solar panels.
It’s a monthly fee, which would pay for distribution and transmission of energy,planned to go into effect in April 2010 and would have to be paid to Xcel, regardless of whether the solar customer used any electricity that month. Customers who got solar panels before April 2010 would not have to pay the fee.”
Apparently, they have backed off at the public calling; the mentioned fee will not be charged from the existing users and will be started to be collected from those who install the panels by April 2010.
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Here is an excerpt from the article I read:
Bowing to public pressure, Xcel Energy Inc. on Tuesday backed off, for now, its proposal to institute a minimum monthly fee for customers who get most — or all — their electricity from solar power panels perched on the roof of their home or business.
The new charge wouldn’t have affected any current customers using self-generated solar power, only those who installed solar panels after April 2010. The proposal was part of Xcel’s rate case, a series of proposals for pricing electricity, filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission in May.
But the idea of charging solar customers a monthly minimum — to cover the cost of connecting the solar panels to the grid — drew a storm of protest from the Denver-area solar power installation businesses, their customers and supporters including the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). (http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/08/03/daily31.html)
