Published: Monday, February 22, 2021
Energy collage. Credits: Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (illustration); Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr (drafting sketches); jwigley/Pixabay (pump jack); MaxPixel (turbines); Tikilucas/Wikimedia Commons (coal plant)
Many state energy regulators are pushing for less coal power and more renewables, forcing some electric companies to redo their long-term energy plans. Claudine Hellmuth/E&E News (illustration); Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr (drafting sketches); jwigley/Pixabay (pump jack); MaxPixel (turbines); Tikilucas/Wikimedia Commons (coal plant)
Utility regulators in several states are taking the unusual step of telling electric companies to redo their long-term energy road maps, a move that could dramatically alter the trajectory of fossil fuels and renewables.
Dominion Energy unveils job-killing, rate-hiking solar fees
COLUMBIA, SC Just days before Christmas, Dominion Energy South Carolina has unveiled a slate of newly proposed fees and rate changes that will cause solar-industry workers to lose their jobs, force solar customers to pay considerably more, and all but eliminate one of the simplest options for homeowners to reduce power bills in a region where they already pay among the highest electricity costs in the country.
The Dominion proposal would add roughly $650 in new mandatory annual fees to the bill of a typical solar customer. The newly proposed “subscription fee” is effectively a new solar tax that is on top of Dominion’s move to more than double the existing customer charge for solar-panel owners.
Dominion’s costly expansion plans sent back to drawing board
COLUMBIA, SC A South Carolina regulatory board rejected Dominion Energy’s expensive and predictable plans to provide power to its customers over the next decades, saying the Virginia-based utility had given short shrift to cost-saving options like energy-efficiency upgrades and broader adoption of renewable energy sources.
The rare rebuke of a large power company effectively sends Dominion Energy back to the drawing board with requirements to do more homework before appearing again before the Public Service Commission. Dominion had asked the commission to approve the company’s “Integrated Resource Plan,” a multi-decade road map that outlines how the utility plans to provide electricity to customers in an economical and sustainable way.