Solar boosters stop utility’s plan to hike bills for sun power customers in SC

Sammy Fretwell
·4 min read

The S.C. Public Service Commission has rejected a plan by Dominion Energy that would have smacked solar energy users with charges critics said would discourage the use of sun power by people seeking to save money on power bills.

In a 5-0 vote Wednesday, the PSC said it would not support a Dominion solar plan that could have charged many residential solar customers more than $50 extra a month. Dominion wanted to add a series of charges for future solar customers, arguing that non-solar customers are subsidizing those who use sun panels to make energy.

But the commission was skeptical of that argument. Commissioners said a recent state solar law, known as the Energy Freedom Act, encourages the use of sun power in South Carolina, but extra fees and costs for future customers would work against that goal.

“I’m of the opinion that this is the only way to address the requirements to build upon successful solar generating deployment’’ from the new law, PSC vice chair Florence Belser said, noting that rejecting Dominion’s plan would “avoid disruption’’ of the solar market.

Under Dominion’s plan, a homeowner with an average sized rooftop solar energy system would see a reduction of 60% in cost savings, PSC chairman Justin Williams said. For homeowners with smaller rooftop systems, the loss of savings could be about 26%, Williams said.

The dispute centers on Dominion customers who receive energy from a combination of solar power they make during the day and energy they get at night from Dominion. While it costs homeowners little to make energy from the sun, Dominion wants to add charges because it also provides conventional power to those customers.

Dominion, a national energy giant headquartered in Virginia, has more than 700,000 electricity customers in South Carolina, only a fraction of whom also use solar power. Critics say the company fears competition from solar, but Dominion has disputed that.

Environmentalists and solar industry officials say the argument that non-solar customers are subsidizing solar customers is misleading because any subsidy would be tiny, if it exists at all. PSC commissioners also remained unconvinced by Dominion’s argument, according to statements made Wednesday.

Wednesday’s decision is the latest in a series of skirmishes between power companies and solar advocates. At one point, South Carolina had one of the least friendly environments in the country for solar energy, The State has reported.

In the past decade, the Legislature has passed two laws seeking to ease restrictions on the industry, the most recent of which was approved in 2019. The change in laws has bolstered the state’s virtually non-existent solar industry as a new wave of sun companies have moved into South Carolina.

Lawmakers have increasingly embraced solar power after a nuclear construction plant debacle cost ratepayers of state-owned Santee Cooper and Dominion’s predecessor, SCE&G, billions of dollars. The companies abandoned plans to build twin nuclear plants in 2017 after charging customers billions of dollars in higher rates. The project had been beset with delays and cost overruns.

Solar industry officials and environmentalists who fought the extra fees from Dominion were ecstatic about the PSC ruling.

“This is a bright day for solar in South Carolina,’’ said John Tynan, director of the Conservation Voters of South Carolina. “This decision allows rooftop solar to continue to grow and it shows that our Public Service Commission is serious about ... standing up for what is good for customers and what is good for clean energy, and is not afraid to push back on utility monopolies when they do something that is egregious.’’

David Neal, an attorney who worked on the case for the Southern Environmental Law Center, echoed those comments, as did the Sunrun solar company’s Tyson Grinstead. Dominion’s plan would have added at least two extra sets of fees and reduced how much the company would pay customers for making energy they sell back to the utility.

“We are pleased that the S.C. Public Service Commission heard what South Carolinians had to say about protecting their right to energy choice,’’ Grinstead said in a statement shortly after the ruling. “This unanimous decision will accomplish what the Energy Freedom Act set out to do: support the growth and economic viability of rooftop solar. We look forward to continuing to help thousands of South Carolinians make their own power.’’

Wednesday’s long-awaited ruling follows a public hearing earlier this year that lasted until the wee hours of the morning. While some people complained about unscrupulous solar salespeople, many said they wanted the right to install solar power to save money without additional fees that would discourage that.

Dominion’s plan would have affected future solar customers, after either 2026 or 2029, depending on when they installed solar panels. The company did not immediately respond to a request from The State for comment.

Solar energy is a form of alternative, non-traditional power that is considered more friendly to the environment than traditional energy sources, such as coal and nuclear. Solar panels that make energy do not produce greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, as coal plants do. They also do not create hazardous atomic waste like nuclear plants.

This story has been updated.

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