Rep. Ed Soliday, Co-Chair
Rep. Chris Jeter
Rep. Ethan Manning
Rep. Sharon Negele
Rep. Ryan Hatfield
Rep. Matt Pierce
Sen. Eric Koch, Co-Chair
Sen. Scott Baldwin
Sen. Stacy Donato
Sen. Jean Leising
Sen. David Niezgodski
Sen. Shelli Yoder
Key:
Red = Republican
Blue = Democrat
Today (5/27/2021), Duke Energy Indiana (DEI) filed its testimony in the Excess Distributed Generation (EDG) tariff case in Cause No. 45508. Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG) is an Intervenor is this proceeding before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC).
Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) Cause No. 45508 -
Document Description: Verified Testimony of Roger A. Flick II
Please click on the following link to retrieve the document: Document
Document Description: Workpaper 1 (RAF)
Please click on the following link to retrieve the document: Document
Here is a short excerpt from their direct testimony by Roger A. Flick, II.
For immediate release
Contact: Laura Ann Arnold (317) 502-5123 or Laura.Arnold@IndianaDG.net
IndianaDG Joins Appeal of CenterPoint EDG Order to Replace Net Metering; IndianaDG Says Order is an Over Reach of IURC’s Authority
Last week the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC), the watchdog agency that represents Hoosier ratepayers, filed an appeal of an order last month that would authorize CenterPoint (formerly Vectren) to reduce the credit received by future solar owners and change the period for earning credits so that more customer-owned solar is credited at the new lower rate, which will have a chilling effect on new solar installations if it is allowed to stand.
Today (5/10/2021) Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG) filed a Notice of Appearance as Appellant and Joinder on Notice of Appeal.
Other parties joining the OUCC in this action include Solarize Indiana, Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana (CAC), Environmental Law and Policy Center (ELPC), Vote Solar and Solar United Neighbors (SUN).
“IndianaDG believes the Commission erred in approving the CenterPoint EDG tariff using instantaneous netting,” Said Laura Ann Arnold, President of Indiana Distributed Energy Alliance (IndianaDG). “We are hopeful that the Indiana Court of Appeals will agree with our reading of SEA 309 enacted by state legislators in 2017.”
“In the meantime, initiating this appeal of the CenterPoint EDG order will send a strong message to the other electric utilities”, continued Arnold “that we will fight this over reach of the Commission’s authority to approve something not sanctioned by state lawmakers”.
The IURC issued its order 4/7/2021 approving CenterPoint’s proposed Excess Distributed Generation (EDG) tariff to replace net metering pursuant to SEA 309 enacted in 2017 by the Indiana General Assembly. On 5/3/2021 CenterPoint filed their proposed EDG tariff with the IURC staff pursuant to the IURC order. The new EDG is awaiting final approval and will replace net metering for CenterPoint’s electric customers who install solar systems. Previously customer owned solar projects received a kWh for kWh credit on their electric bills for any net excess above their own consumption. The new EDG tariff will implement a less favorable system called “instantaneous netting” rather the current “monthly netting”. Plus the new tariff will credit customers for electricity they put back into the grid at 2.7 cents/kWh as opposed to the nearly 15 cents/kWh retail rate paid by most residential customers.
Formal legal briefs to be filed later will outline the parties’ disagreement with CenterPoint and the IURC order. The primary disagreement centers on whether the proposal submitted by Vectren and approved by the Commission follows the language prescribed by state lawmakers in 2017. CenterPoint is the first electric utility to submit an EDG tariff for approval by the Commission. The remaining four electric utilities—NIPSCO, Duke Energy Indiana (DEI), I&M/AEP and AES Indiana (formerly IPL)—submitted their requests on 3/1/2021. Before the Commission issued the order approving “instantaneous netting”, NIPSCO had requested an EDG tariff using monthly netting. Following the Commission order in CenterPoint, however, NIPSCO vacated that testimony and plans to file new testimony requesting to implement instantaneous netting similar to CenterPoint. DEI is scheduled to file its testimony with their proposed methodology for their EDG tariff 5/27/2021.
View IURC order HERE:
45378 IURC Order in Vectren EDG ord_45378_040721
New EDG Tariff Petitions filed 3/1/2021:
NIPSCO_Verified Petition_03012021
45508 DEI-Verified Petition-Distributed Generation 030121
Indiana Michigan Power Company_Verified Petition_03012021-c
Indiana Michigan Power (“I&M” or the “Company”) is issuing an Informational Request for Proposal (“RFP”) notice soliciting input from the marketplace regarding All-Source resource “indicative” responses (“response”) to inform its planning towards further diversifying its generation portfolio over the coming years. I&M is beginning work on its next Indiana Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”), a road map the Company updates every three years that is used as a planning tool to evaluate how it will meet customers’ energy needs using a diverse mix of power generation resources. The Company’s goal is an approach that balances affordability, reliability and sustainability for customers and stakeholders.
I&M is interested in assessing the current availabilities in the marketplace to provide the following:
Responses may be from existing generating resources or from proposed resources that support the following timing:
In connection with this RFP, I&M has retained the services of an independent third-party consultant, Siemens PTI, to manage the RFP process and work with I&M to perform the quantitative and qualitative evaluations of all responses.
All respondents will directly interface with Siemens PTI for all communications including questions, RFP clarification issues, and submittal of a response. All correspondence concerning this RFP should be sent via e-mail to imallsourcerfp.us@siemens.com.
Issue: April 23, 2021
Due Date: May 21, 2021
South Carolina legislators have encouraged the state's solar deployment, viewing it as a way to meet consumer demand and an opportunity for job growth. The Energy Freedom Act of 2019 removed the 2% net metering caps, letting utilities give more customers the option of having their own behind-the-meter resource with a one-to-one net metering policy for a two-year period.
The state's utilities were accepting new rooftop solar customers in their service until they constituted 2% of their customer base. Duke Energy was the first utility to hit that cap, and subsequent rooftop solar customers would have received less favorable rates for the energy sold back to the grid.
The law also directed the PSC to come up with a new net metering structure. Dominion's proposal for the replacement included several components that energy choice advocates and the solar industry have criticized this year.
"Dominion Energy's proposal would have added harmful, unnecessary charges for rooftop solar customers in South Carolina, and this decision rejects that proposal and implements the parties' suggestion," Will Giese, Southeast regional director at the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a statement.
With Wednesday's action, the PSC created a requirement for Dominion to take new distributed resource customer service under a time-of-use rate schedule and to allow customers to carry over monthly excess generation at the full retail rate based on the time-of-use period.
The proposal included suggestions on successor net metering tariffs from SEIA and the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association.
"This unanimous decision will accomplish what the Energy Freedom Act set out to do: support the growth and economic viability of rooftop solar," Tyson Grinstead, the Southeast public policy director of solar developer Sunrun, said in a statement.
But the state legislature had set an expectation in the 2019 legislation to prioritize the elimination of a cost shift within the next evolution of net metering, Dominion said in its proposed plan.
"Today's decision means that customers who choose not to have solar panels on their homes will continue to pay more to subsidize the costs for those who do," Dominion spokesperson Rhonda O'Banion said in an email.
"We believe that our proposal for the new Solar Choice Program complied with the legislature's expectations and plain language of the law to eliminate the cost shift and/or subsidy to the greatest extent possible.
Throughout the country, net metering disputes often lead a utility to tout the ability to invest in cheaper larger-scale solar.
"With over 1,000 megawatts of solar on our electric generation system, Dominion will continue to be a leader in a clean energy future for South Carolina, and solar energy plays a big part in our plans," O'Banion said.
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