Even though solar companies and environmental groups fought against Duke Energy’s new net-metering rules, the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided unanimously on Tuesday that they will stay in place.
The rules, which became law in October of last year, say how much customers who have solar panels on their roofs can save on their energy bills when they sell extra power back to the grid. People will switch from a flat rate for power supplied to a time-of-use rate under the new rules.
Solar contractors say that this change has made their business worse. They say it’s hard to explain the new rules to possible customers and that customers will save less money because electricity costs are lowest in the middle of the day, when solar production is high.
Duke Energy said the new rates were needed to make sure that rooftop solar users in North Carolina pay their fair share to connect to the energy grid.
The people who were appealing said that the NC Utilities Commission accepted the changes because of a study Duke Energy did, not because of an independent NCUC study.
However, the appeals court judges said that the NCUC actually did an investigation when it opened a docket in response to Duke Energy’s planned changes and let other parties submit evidence that was different from Duke’s claims.
Jimmy Warren, who is the head of NC Warn, one of the appellants in this case, said in a news statement that he was upset.
Warren said, “This decision hurts our once-growing solar power industry and the communities that are constantly being hit by climate change caused by polluters like Duke Energy.”
“We need the courts to enforce the law while other state officials, especially the regulators who just give the go-ahead, constantly break the rules and disregard due process to favor this huge polluter company.”
The president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, Abigail Hopper, said that the group’s data already shows a drop in rooftop solar installs since the change to net-metering in October. Even though she thinks there is still time for a comeback, North Carolina has been falling in the national rankings for installed solar power.
She said, “[New net-metering rules] make it harder to decide.” “We’re working closely with our North Carolina colleagues to make sure that solar stays a cheap and practical choice for homeowners.”
Duke Energy’s Power Pair scheme is another way that future solar customers might be able to save money. Customers who add solar panels and battery storage to their homes will get money from the pilot scheme.