Opening the books on renewable power in NC

Published May 26, 2017

by Francis De Luca, Civitas Institute, May 25, 2017.

In what may be a first, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) has put on  its docket a petition to declare that a renewable power facility is in fact a public utility under NC law. This action is the result of a filing I did on May 18 asking the NCUC to issue a “… declaratory ruling that Fresh Air Energy, LLC is a public utility pursuant to G.S 62-3(23) for the purposes of the public utilities act.”

While much of what the NCUC does is legalistic, and seems complicated to the non-lawyer, this request is straightforward. I just want the NCUC to require the renewable companies to tell the public how much it costs them to produce the electricity they are selling us — just like Duke Power and the other power companies are forced to do.

Since I buy my electricity from Duke, a regulated utility, and Duke (and other power companies) are forced to buy electricity from these renewable companies, due to the 2007 Senate Bill 3, they should be treated  in the same manner we treat all power companies. Duke is required to disclose how much it costs to generate and transport the electricity and the NCUC sets a price that allows Duke to make a profit.

With the renewables, Duke adds a charge to our electric bills to help cover the costs of buying this “renewable energy” at a higher price than it costs to generate the electricity itself. This extra charge goes towards covering the higher costs of this electricity and the higher costs of upgrading the grid to handle these distributed generators.

To protect families and keep North Carolina competitive, we need to keep the cost of electricity as low as possible. The current system does not encourage competition among renewables. We also need to encourage the idea that we need transparency from our utilities.

I believe in the future, when more robust and safe storage (i.e. batteries) solutions are developed, renewables will have a more important place in our energy mix. Right now, however, the primary driver of renewables in NC has been state and local tax subsidies. Even the industry’s own studies admit this, as in Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis 10.0 which states that producers have been focused on maximizing subsidies rather than driving down costs. Since taxpayers have already subsidized the production of this electricity, why don’t they  pay for it solely based on the actual costs?

If our efforts are successful in opening the books on renewable power, we will finally know the true costs of renewable electricity in North Carolina.

https://www.nccivitas.org/2017/opening-books-renewable-power-north-carolina/

May 29, 2017 at 10:12 am
Norm Kelly says:

If the books are opened, it's possible citizens and possibly some pols, will object to how much it costs, and how little it does to prevent 'global climate change'.

Libs don't care how much it costs because it fits in with their lie about man-made global climate change. Libs don't care how much it costs, and desire the true cost be hidden, because it penalizes large energy producers that they hate. Libs don't care how much it costs because they want to drive traditional energy producers out of business.

If libs passed this scheme, is it any wonder that they didn't make ALL energy producers conform to the normal energy production regulations? Non-traditional energy production is one of their pet projects, so it doesn't matter how good it is, how expensive it is, nor how little it does for the environment. Just like all lib schemes, it's the feeling that counts NOT the result. It's the seriousness of the charge that matters, not the guilt or innocence of the person involved.