Floridians who live in the Lakeland Electric service territory will no longer be offered the opportunity to participate in solar net-metering starting January 1, 2016. The municipal electric utility and member of the Florida Municipal Electric Association is the first utility in Florida to completely abandon net-metering and begin to discriminate against customers who choose to self generate.
Net Energy Metering (NEM) is a billing method that provides electric customers who choose to install solar panels fair, full retail credit for the clean energy they occasionally send back to the grid for nearby neighbors and businesses to use. Forty-four states have found net-metering is the fairest way to bill solar customers and Florida is on that list as required by statute.
We believe Lakeland Electric is violating the statutory requirement to provide net-metering to its customers by making this move.
Lakeland Electric has been recognized as one of the most progressive utilities in the state until now. Customers on the Lakeland power grid have benefited from solar energy generated by a 12 MW solar array, energy which the utility purchases power from under a long term agreement provided by SunEdison, giving Lakeland the highest solar kW per ratepayer in the state. Now the utility has changed course, turning its back on its customers and their right to self generate.
The new pricing plan called Residential Peak Demand (RPD) is an attempt to undermine the growth of solar installation as new solar financing models in Florida have emerged which allow homeowners to purchase energy from solar panels at a lower rate than the utility can provide. 2016 is expected to be a banner year for residential home solar installation as homeowners anticipate the potential expiration of the 30% solar energy investment tax credit.
The utility, by implementing this discriminatory rate plan, has waged a preemptive strike against homes and businesses within it's service territory. The confusing new rate design will require solar customers to invest in expensive battery systems, significantly change their behavior all while being subject to demand charges based on time of use rates that could potentially change over time making it even more difficult to predict savings.
Studies have shown time and again that customers who generate solar energy are providing more benefits to the grid than the cost of administering net-metering. That’s right -- the benefits of solar exceed the costs in nearly every study that has been fairly commissioned. The Lakeland Electric program will significantly slow investment in rooftop solar in its service territory and result in higher rates over the long term for its customers.
Isolating a small group of ratepayers and forcing them to buy power at a different rate than non-solar customers is by definition discrimination and the citizens of Lakeland should not stand for it.