FIGHT FOR WHAT’S RIGHT AND YOU WILL NEVER LOSE.
Welcome to notaxonthesun.com. My name is Scot Sherbine (long time resident of the borough 31 years if it serves me correct). I live at 202 S. State St. I am your neighbor up here on the corner of Fulton. This site here to discuss Federal and State regulations for Net Metering of residential solar.
The U.S. is now home to more than 2 million solar PV installations. The mark comes just three years after the industry completed its 1 millionth installation, a feat that took 40 years to accomplish.
By 2024, 2.5 percent of all U.S. homes will have a solar installation. In 2019 1.7 percent already had installations.
The Borough of Ephrata has 5680 housing units. 2.5% of 5680 is roughly 142 installations that we should have here in the Borough in the next 3 years. At 1.7% last year in 2019 we should have had 97 pv solar installations.
In 2020 I am the 3rd home with a solar install in the Borough of Ephrata. That is only 3% of where we were supposed to be last year.
And that is the reason for this informative website. The rules that Borough of Ephrata currently have do not promote solar they hinder it. They’re hard to understand. Billing is also complicated. And there is a tax on kilowatts produced by the solar panels before they are even used in the home.
Please see this diagram showing how net metering works throughout the United States and Pennsylvania.
Retail customer net metering falls squarely within the purview of authority reserved for state regulators. Congress affirmed this conclusion in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Specifically, Congress amended the Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978 (PURPA) to include net metering among a list of retail policies that states and non-regulated utilities are directed to consider implementing.
Pennsylvania Laws and Codes 75.11 thru 75.17 are clear on the rules for net metering.
Federal authority covers rates for “wholesale sales of electric energy in interstate commerce” and “practices . . . affecting” those rates. States have jurisdiction over “any other sale of electric energy” and “over facilities used for the generation of electric energy or . . . in local distribution.” The FPA further limits FERC jurisdiction “only to those matters which are not subject to regulation by the States.”
In a nutshell anything that is not regulated by the State is regulated by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission when it comes to electric traveled on the PJM power grid.
****** PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in Pennsylvania. • Based on Order No. 2003, FERC has jurisdiction over an interconnection when the Interconnection Customer plans to:
- Interconnect to the transmission system;
- or – Interconnect to the distribution system to engage in a sale for resale in interstate commerce.
- To explain better. If there is excess output at the end of the annual billing period, that excess is considered a wholesale sale subject to FERC jurisdiction and the generator would have to come in to the PJM queue.
Pennsylvania State regulations and codes 75.11 thru 75.17 are clear for net metering. The Borough is also regulated by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission FERC due to interstate energy commerce on the PJM grid. And to reiterate… The FPA Federal Power Authority limits FERC jurisdiction “only to those matters which are not subject to regulation by the States.”
I am here as a member of this community so that we can work together to remove the Boro of Ephrata’s solar hindering rules and change to the current Federal and already in place Pennsylvania laws for net metering guidelines.
You’ll know when we get it right… the proof is in the pudding. There will be 100+ homes with solar here in our Borough.