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Rebecca Schultz is senior advocate for climate and clean energy at the Natural Resources Council of Maine.
Solar energy in Maine has grown sevenfold in the last few years. This tremendous growth has saved towns, school districts and local businesses money on their electric bills and added hundreds of jobs to Maine’s economy. The solar industry has also shouldered tens of millions of dollars in upgrades to Maine’s electric grid. But this enormous success hasn’t happened without growing pains.
Several recent news stories have included concerns raised by the Office of the Public Advocate, which has gone so far as to propose returning to a LePage-era policy that stifled investment in clean energy and restricted customer choice. There is broad agreement that changes are necessary, but going backward on solar energy is not a solution to high electricity costs.
We should be clear that the region’s continued dependence on expensive and polluting natural gas is primarily responsible for driving up electricity rates. The typical Central Maine Power residential bill has increased more than $60 per month over the past two years as natural gas-fired electricity has driven up costs.
Success in jumpstarting Maine’s solar industry is due to two main policy initiatives. Through one approach, the Public Utilities Commission conducts a competitive bidding process to select the least expensive energy projects that bring the most benefit to ratepayers. This competitive procurement policy is relatively straightforward and has supported affordable large-scale solar development for Maine ratepayers.
Maine’s other solar policy is net energy billing. Whether a residential customer is participating by putting solar panels on their roof, signing up for a monthly subscription from a community solar project or whether a municipality, school or business is investing in a project offsite, whatever the model, a consumer is saving money while supporting clean energy and reducing pollution. There are more than 20,000 customers benefiting from lower electricity costs through small- and medium-sized solar projects in this program.
How exactly we value the solar energy produced by these net energy billing projects and how exactly we compensate them is the question we need to consider now as we move to the next phase of Maine’s clean energy transition.
What changes should we make now?
First, the utilities commission needs to continue to scrutinize the numbers that the utilities put forth to justify rate increases. For example, regulators found an extra $10 million in CMP’s recent request to increase rates starting July 1. We need a regulatory framework that treats interconnecting distributed renewable energy as the normal course of business for our public utilities, and these companies must not be allowed to recover more ratepayer money than they are rightfully owed.
Second, we need more low-cost, home-grown, large-scale solar to put us on track to meet our climate goals, improve electric grid reliability, and protect ratepayers from fossil fuel price spikes. We can do this by passing LD 1591 to direct the utilities commission to do additional competitive procurements for renewable energy. The benefits to Maine ratepayers from these kinds of projects are clear.
Third, we need to implement the recommendations of the distributed generation stakeholder group to reform net energy billing by building a better, smarter successor program for small- and medium-sized solar projects. A carefully designed program that combines solar with energy storage could pay back $2.77 to ratepayers for every dollar spent.
LD 1986 achieves these goals. This bill will help hold utilities accountable by requiring an honest accounting of the costs and benefits of solar energy projects; it will authorize the Governor’s Energy Office to tap the billions of dollars in federal funding now available to establish a new program that targets the benefits of solar to low-income Mainers; and it will honor existing contracts while creating off-ramps for projects already under development under the current net energy billing program.
The combination of LD 1986 and LD 1591 will help us continue momentum toward a clean energy transition for Maine. By taking these constructive steps we can build on lessons learned, leverage new federal funds and make improvements in our solar policies that will have lasting benefits for Maine ratepayers.
