Solar, business advocates overfill hearing rooms to comment on a potential Xcel rate change Proposal would add grid charge to customer’s utility bill

An outsized crowd showed up Thursday afternoon trying to sway the Colorado Public Utilities Commission’s opinion about an Xcel Energy plan to change the way customers are billed for access to the electric grid. Limited to only two minutes for time’s sake, business advocacy groups started the more than two-hour hearing by commenting in favor of the Xcel rate change, saying it would bring transparency and fairness to customer billing. But solar advocates, workers and scientists quickly took over, saying the proposed grid-use charge would discourage people from going solar at a time when renewable energy should be encouraged. “We were here to listen today,” Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz said, adding that Colorado’s largest utility would take what was said to heart. “It was great to get the perspective of the public.” In January, Xcel proposed a tiered, fixed-grid charge depending on a customer’s energy usage over the past 12 billing periods. In return, Xcel will lower the per-kilowatt-hour charge to 3.37 cents, a 1.23-cent drop. The utility argues that solar users, who receive credit for excess energy put back into the grid, aren’t paying for the upkeep of the energy system or for their nighttime usage, instead shifting that cost onto other ratepayers. “We take up issues sometimes out of fairness,” Stutz said. “We don’t think this dynamic is right.” Renewable energy advocates say a fixed charge will undercut the financial value of rooftop solar. Additionally, they point to a two-year process that concluded in August, when the PUC determined that the current system for solar users was fair and that additional charges weren’t needed. A majority of speakers were renewable energy advocates, solar workers or scientists who opposed the proposal, saying it could discourage people from adding rooftop solar, which would severely damage the industry in Colorado. Only a handful of speakers who testified were not associated with either a solar or business advocacy group. Those few expressed split opinions on the proposal. Jim Bunch, self-described as “just a guy down the street,” said he supported Xcel’s proposal. Although he has geothermal at his home, he said Xcel has multiple system costs beyond generating power that still need to be covered. “You’re asking that ratepayer to keep that structure in place because on the coldest day in December and on the hottest day in August, everybody’s going to have a high demand and guess what, they’re going to expect that utility to provide that service,” Bunch said. Michele Haedrich, who has rooftop solar installed at her home, also supported the proposal, saying it would provide more transparency on what customers are paying for. Haedrich said she paid only $8 for electric and received a $53 rebate from Xcel. “I almost feel guilty when I get a credit on my state taxes for using solar,” Haedrich said after testifying. “I almost feel guilty for getting these checks. It’s just so heavily subsidized.” But other homeowners disagreed. “We should be making it easier for people and cheaper for people to adopt these rooftop systems rather than making it more expensive,” said Sandy Hockenburg, who recently signed up for Namaste Solar and is putting a system on her roof. “Really Colorado should be at the forefront of the solar power, not at the back end. This is a major step backwards.” Broomfield-resident John Zukowski said he has been following the case in the paper and is an investor with several properties in Colorado, although his own home does not have the capability of adding solar. He said the Xcel rate change doesn’t honor agreements from last year’s decision. “All I’m asking for is — let solar be a real choice for people,” Zukowski said. Solar workers, some noting that they had moved to Colorado to work after solar companies left Nevada when it removed its benefits for solar customers, testified against the proposition. They said solar energy should be encouraged because it creates jobs and that the state doesn’t want to become another Nevada. Job growth in the solar industry grew 12 times as fast as overall job growth in the U.S. economy in 2015, reaching 209,000 jobs, according to a 2016 annual review by the International Renewable Energy Agency. A second public hearing is scheduled for June 16 at the City of Grand Junction Auditorium from 4-6 p.m. The commission will have hearings starting Aug. 10.