In a landmark, first of its kind move, Kentucky Power has moved to aggressively cut the compensation it provides to new solar Net Metering customers.
Kentucky Power requested this and other tariff changes in its recent Public Service Commission submission (CASE NO.2020-00174). The Kentucky PSC interim judgement was that they had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify this penal rate change. Due to procedural rules they can now re-submit their justification for a final judgement by May 15th latest; but you have to ask who gets a do-over in court when you fail to convince people the first time around? Worse, they are allowed to now take a risk and implement this new tariff as long as they rebate the losses to consumers should they later lose!! That means as of January 14th they have moved (for new residential customers) from a historic 1:1 compensation of 9.8 cents/kWh (without riders and taxes) to 3.6 cents/kWh. A savage 60+% drop!
The Kentucky PSC is still looking for comments and input on this and the similar LG&E (CASE NO. 2020-00350)/KU (CASE NO. 2020-00349) cases, the latter which will have a potentially much bigger negative impact on its nearly 1 million Kentucky customers. Please reach out to the PSC and let them know how you feel.
Impartial 3rd party and academic studies show again and again and again that solar is worth at least the same if not more than its residential cost. Our monopoly utilities know homegrown residential, small business, farm, non-profit and place of worship solar threatens their cozy and profitable business model and they will stop at nothing to maintain a tight grip on its future growth. Don’t let them horde the sun for profit.
The information below is from the PSC website regarding submitting comments and questions.
To submit a comment or ask about a case
Include the case number (above) within the subject line of your email to the Public Information Officer psc.info@ky.gov and provide your full name and place of residence in the body of the e-mail.
NOTE Case-related comments submitted online or by other means while a case is in progress become a part of the official case record. All documents within a case record are publicly available online. Case-related comments submitted after a case has closed do not become a part of the official case record.
