KC Star: Rates may not shine so bright on solar-powered homes in Kansas and Missouri
A decade ago, customers who paid Cromwell Solar to put power harvesting panels atop their homes typically came with a lot of disposable income and at least a little environmental sensibility.
“Suzy Granola might have really wanted it, but she couldn’t afford it on her home. … We were doing neurosurgeon homes,” said Aron Cromwell, CEO of the Lawrence-based company. “Now we have people who install 100 percent for economic reasons.”
The fast-dropping price of solar panels and new methods for cheaper installation make watts from sunshine the stuff of the middle class. Some financing plans let you lease the solar panels perched on your roof. In fact, your new loan payments combined with a shrunken utility payment could end up less than your old monthly light bill.
All that makes utilities nervous.
Some want regulators to set steeper rates for consumers who come to the power grid with their own solar-generated electricity — clouding the economics of home-brewed voltage.
Power companies argue that a solar house doesn’t pick up enough of the cost of all it takes to make energy available around the clock. If those solar homes don’t pay for upkeep, they contend, other customers eventually get stuck with higher bills.
As part of a larger request to boost rates, Westar Energy earlier this year asked the Kansas Corporation Commission to make customers with solar panels pay a $50 fixed fee every month — compared with $14.50 for conventional customers. While they would pay slightly less per kilowatt than other customers, the aim was to make their bills go up.
State regulators ultimately set aside that pricing, along with a more complicated formula also intended to raise the cost for solar users, in approving a rate hike. But they’ll pick it up as a standalone issue in December. A study is likely to follow, with possible higher charges for solar customers to follow.
Westar still insists that solar customers should pay a higher flat fee.
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