The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it will not act on a petition for enforcement targeting California's rules for rooftop solar installations, paving the way for related litigation in federal court to proceed.
Californians for Renewable Energy, or CARE, and seven of its individual members filed the petition (EL22-86) with FERC in August. The petition was filed after a federal judge for the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California determined that the group and its members must do so before amending a legal challenge to the California Public Utilities Commission's net metering rules for residential solar facilities.
"Our decision not to initiate an enforcement action means that petitioners may themselves bring an enforcement action against the California Commission in the appropriate court," FERC said Oct. 25 in a brief two-page order.
The ongoing litigation, which dates back to 2011, is centered on the "avoided-cost" rates that small renewable power generators such as residential solar systems in California receive under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, or PURPA, of 1978.
California leads the U.S. in distributed energy generation with more than 1.5 million solar systems totaling over 13 GW in generating capacity, according to official public data.
The PURPA requires incumbent electric utilities to purchase electricity from smaller qualifying facilities with a capacity of 80 MW or less at avoided-cost rates that reflect what companies would have to pay to buy that same power from other generators or produce it themselves.
FERC's implementing rules for PURPA give state regulators significant leeway to calculate their own avoided cost rates.
In its August petition, however, CARE said California's net metering rules have enabled investor-owned utilities to avoid appropriately compensating rooftop solar facilities under the statute. The companies use their own utility-supplied metering devices to net a customer's retail usage against a solar facility's wholesale production.
That method effectively allows investor-owned utilities to zero out net-metered customers' contribution toward the state's renewable portfolio standard, CARE said. Under California's current net-metering program, energy purchased from residential and commercial rooftop solar systems does not count toward the state's renewable portfolio standard.
The state's investor-owned utilities are PG&E Corp. subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Edison International subsidiary Southern California Edison Co., and Sempra subsidiary San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
"Basically, they don't want to have to pay for the solar power," CARE President Michael Boyd said in an Oct. 26 interview. "That's what it's all about."
In 2018, California passed a state law increasing its renewable portfolio standard to 60% by 2030. The same state law requires a 100% carbon-free power grid by 2045.
Compliance with California's renewable portfolio standard is measured in renewable energy credits, with 1 MWh equaling one renewable energy credit.
Boyd, who filed the group's August petition, said he installed a revenue-grade meter in July capable of measuring his 5.2 kW capacity solar array's output within half a percent of accuracy.
In approximately three weeks, the meter will have recorded 1 MWh of direct production from the solar array, Boyd said.
If allowed to claim that production as a renewable energy credit, he could then sell it to other companies seeking to comply with California's renewable portfolio standard, Boyd said.
California is also revamping its net-metering program to address what critics have described as a "cost shift" from rooftop solar owners to customers without solar installations who are allegedly forced to shoulder a greater cost burden for the broader system's upkeep.
Boyd said CARE and other members of the group who are seeking to participate in the district court litigation would likely use FERC's Oct. 25 order to further amend their complaint as required by federal law. The case before the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California is CARE et al. v. CPUC et al. (No. 2:11- cv-04975-JWH-JCG)
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