Thursday, July 25, 2013

Xcel?s renewable energy plan for 2014: More solar, smaller rebates, big questions

Xcel Energy Inc. is asking Colorado regulators to look at how much credit solar power customers should get on their bills ? and whether its other customers are paying too much to subsidize the renewable energy.

Wednesday, Minneapolis-based Xcel (NYSE: XEL), Colorado's biggest provider of electricity and natural gas, asked state regulators to examine the true costs and benefits that its 15,000 customers who have solar power panels on their roofs bring to the overall system.

?We want to make it transparent; we want to know what the costs and benefits are. Then we can have a discussion about what?s appropriate,? said David Eves, president and CEO of Public Service Company of Colorado, Xcel?s subsidiary in the state, in an interview.

According to Xcel, there?s a 5.9-cent per kilowatt gap between the 10.5 cents per kilowatt our that the utility is crediting small-scale solar power customers for power produced by their systems, and the 4.6 cents per kilowatt hour of "benefit" to the utility ? the value of the power plants that aren?t built, and the fuel that?s not purchased because of those solar power panels.

The request to look at net metering issues was included in Xcel?s filing Wednesday to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) on how it plans to meet renewable energy goals in 2014.

The utility also proposed lowering its "Solar*Reward" rebate levels to less than a penny per kilowatt hour.

In the filing, Xcel said it wants to add another 42.5 megawatts of solar power to its system in 2014.

That total would be broken into categories:

? 24 megawatts would be dedicated to small solar power systems that can generate up to 25 kilowatts of power ? currently the cap on small systems is 10 kilowatts.

Cathy Proctor covers energy, the environment, transportation and construction for the Denver Business Journal and edits the weekly "Energy Inc." newsletter. Phone: 303-803-9233. Subscribe to the Energy Inc. newsletter

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vertical_29/~3/IlfTeE8yZnk/xcels-renewable-energy-proposals-for.html

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