Orlando’s energy provider plans to vote Tuesday on revamping its billing structure and changing incentives for when and how customers use power, which has sparked a combative controversy over what’s best for local solar and electricity users .
The public Orlando Utilities Commission claims it must restructure rates to be modern, flexible and fair as the utility — in advancing the fight against climate change — races toward phasing out coal and natural gas in favor of solar energy and other green energy. Bills for an average of more than 250,000 customers would change little, the utility claims.
But some environmentalists, civic activists and advocates of solar panels on residential rooftops are lashing out at OUC’s initiative as less about climate action and more about driving up energy bills, destroying a nascent solar industry and funding “abundant expenditure’.
Both sides accuse each other of making outdated assumptions, ignoring uncomfortable realities and spreading untruths.
“It is my deeply held opinion that they are distorting the truth and in some cases blatantly lying,” said Heaven Campbell, program director of Solar United Neighbors in Florida, a nonprofit that helps communities form solar cooperatives.
Also entrenched in the outcome is the Orlando city government, which diverts nearly $100 million of OUC’s annual income to pay for essential municipal services but has also been a major supporter of the utility’s clean energy transformation.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has a permanent seat and by far the strongest voice on OUC’s five-member board, which must approve the proposed rate review. On Friday afternoon, the mayor responded in writing to questions from the Orlando Sentinel about his position on the matter. Dyer had opposed an earlier version of the plan, which forced OUC to go back to the drawing board, and it appears he has softened.
“Mayor Dyer supports OUC’s plan and notes their responsiveness to extensive stakeholder input and their efforts to address his concerns through thoughtful adjustments,” city spokesperson Ashley Papagni said in a statement.
The most provocative issue in OUC’s proposed rate review is a proposed reduction in the utility’s long-standing incentive for customers to install rooftop solar panels.
Today, the utility pays a retail rate — the same rate it charges when selling power to customers — for the additional electricity that comes from household solar systems.
With the proposed rate revision, OUC would, after a twenty-year grandfathering of existing rooftop solar, sharply reduce the compensation to a wholesale rate, equal to how much it costs OUC to generate electricity.
The utility’s reasoning is that solar energy systems have become more affordable for households, that OUC’s large solar energy systems generate electricity at a much lower cost than rooftop systems and that paying a retail rate for excess solar energy is not fair to the vast majority of OUC customers who do. do not have solar panels.
That one proposal drew outrage from those involved in solar cooperatives, the solar industry and a city council member, Patty Sheehan, who has solar panels and considers herself one of City Hall’s experts.
“They don’t appreciate the investments that individuals like me have put into rooftop solar and how it reduces their need to produce energy,” Sheehan said of OUC in response to the Sentinel. “I believe they have become an unreliable and unsustainable municipal utility that punishes solar customers for their investment.”
Opponents argue that the move to a wholesale rate will deter more residents from installing panels on their roofs and hamper the city’s solar industry, undermining the support needed to fuel OUC’s quest to ditch fossil fuels by 2050 to be able to achieve.
The Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, whose members include companies involved in the sale, installation and maintenance of residential rooftop solar panels, is the strongest opponent of the OUC’s rate review.
The website, www.dontdoublemyelectric.com, warns that Orlando will face serious consequences for jobs, the economy and consumers if the utility adopts a new rate structure.
The website claims that 10,000 local jobs would be at risk and that rate changes would underwrite OUC’s lavish spending, a claim made under an illustration of dollar signs and a fresh martini.
The association provided few supporting details when asked about these claims.
Asked to explain the association’s claim on its website that rates would double for all OUC customers, group leader Justin Hoysradt said: “We don’t see a path where they don’t do that.”
Two other proposals for OUC rates – which do not directly address solar energy, but are still shrouded in the rancor of the solar conflict – deal with the amount, timing and other consumer behaviors when consuming electricity.
A proposed change that OUC calls Demand Level Pricing would lower the cost per watt for electricity slightly, but add a monthly fee based on usage of $5, $10 or $15 – so that the more a customer uses, and the electric OUC’s system comes under pressure. , the higher the monthly amount.
The other rate change, called Save and Shift, would result in the rate per watt being higher during times of peak demand, including, for example, midday hours in the summer. During off-peak hours the rate per watt would be lower.
For several reasons, it is more expensive for OUC to generate electricity during peak hours than electricity outside of peak hours.
“Our goal is a modern pricing structure that meets today’s energy needs while building a stronger, more resilient energy system,” said Mindy Brenay, OUC’s Chief Financial Officer, in a guest column published Friday in the Orlando Sentinel.
Still, opponents say Orlando is ill-prepared for these changes, which would come too fast and too hard, especially for low-income customers.
The Rev. Kathy Schmitz, president of the League of Women Voters of Orange County, said OUC has gone astray lately in its quest for renewable energy and would give the utility an F grade if it were to implement its rate changes.
