Oklahoma Moves To Punish People Who Generate Their Own Power
Oklahoma officials are now looking to charge people who install their own solar panels. Residents who produce their own energy, through panels or small wind turbines on their property, are going to receive an additional fee. S.B. 1456, passed by the state legislature and awaiting Gov. Mary Fallin’s signature, breezed through the House after no debate and finishing with an 83-5 vote tally, or 83 in favor with only 5 in opposition.
The new bill creates a new class of customer: those who install distributed power generation systems such as solar panels or wind turbines on their own property, then sell the excess energy back to the grid. Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. spokeswoman Kathleen O’Shea stated, “We’re not anti-solar or anti-wind or trying to slow this down, we’re just trying to keep it fair,”. The additional surcharge amount for those who want to install their own panels has yet to be determined.
“It is unfortunate that some utilities that enthusiastically support wind power for their own use are promoting a regressive policy that will make it harder for their customers to use wind power on their own,… Oklahoma offers tax credits for large wind turbines which are built elsewhere, but wants to penalize small wind which we manufacture here in the state? That makes no sense to me.” said Mike Bergey, president & CEO of Bergey Windpower in Norman, Oklahoma, in a statement.
The bill was aggressively opposed by many renewable energy advocates, along with numerous environmental groups and the conservative group TUSK. However, the bill did have the support of Oklahoma’s major utilities. The state’s distributed energy sources provide a clear value to utility companies. Solar power is generated during peak hours of the day, this is when a utility has to provide electricity to more people than at other times during the day and when energy costs are at their highest.
Solar panels work to feed excess energy back to the grid, helping to alleviate the pressure during peak demand. In addition, because less electricity is being transmitted to customers through transmission lines, it saves utilities on the wear and tear to the lines and cost of replacing them with new ones. The success of solar panel is clearly forcing utilities to re-think their business model and to push for charges on those looking to generate their own energy.
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