Solar Advocate Says N.S. Power Proposal Will Cripple Solar Industry

HALIFAX–If Nova Scotia Power gets what it wants, customers who use solar panels will soon be paying a lot more to access the province’s electrical grid.

NS Power is asking the public utility board to add a new fee to the net-metering program. It wants future solar panel customers using the net-metering system to pay $8.00 per kW of “installed capacity” per month.

This is on top of a request to increase general power rates by 10 percent for everyone over the next three years.

When a homeowner installs a solar panel system, they still need to connect to the power grid.

NS Power says these customers still rely on grid electricity when the sun isn’t shining, especially during the peak periods on winter nights. But the current agreement, it argues, has regular customers basically subsidizing solar users during these peak periods.

Unless a new fee structure is approved, NS Power claims ratepayers will be on the hook to subsidize solar users to the tune of $55-million over the next nine years.

Under NS Power’s rate application, anyone with the net-metering agreement as of February 1, 2022 will be grandfathered in under the old terms for 25 years. The bad news is, should such a customer sell their solar-paneled house, that grandfather clause is nontransferable.

This rate application is ringing alarm bells within Nova Scotia’s solar industry. Dave Brushett, the chair of Solar Nova Scotia, says solar panel sellers and installers have been contacting him all day. He says some have already lost business.

One local company already lost a $125,000 commercial contract due to the uncertainty caused by NS Power’s rate application, says Brushett.

“This is going to have a hugely negative impact on solar businesses. The industry has grown a lot in the last number of years. We have over 40 corporate members who are mostly installers and small business owners,” he said in an interview with Acadia News.

“We’re hearing they’re devastated; they’re having orders cancelled already. This could be a fatal blow to their businesses, and it may result in layoffs.”

Brushett isn’t even optimistic about the grandfather clause because the 25-year exemption isn’t transferable and that could damage the resale value of the solar home.

Solar Nova Scotia estimates that such a new rate structure could add nearly $1,000 a year to the power bill of an average solar-powered home. And it’s already expensive to make the switch to solar.

A homeowner is currently looking at roughly $25,000 for solar panels. The uptick (and selling point) however, was the fact that you would “pay off” that money after 10-years with the amount of money you’d save on your electrical bill.

Brushett says, should NS Power’s proposal be approved, that pay-off period would now be around 30-years.

“This could reduce demand to almost nothing,” he says.

Many solar contractors have also made big investments in anticipation of growing demand. According to NS Power’s research, there were a little more than 4,000 customers on the net-metering program in 2021. But that number is expected to quintuple to 20,000 by 2030.

Brushett believes NS Power is worried about the number of people switching to solar so they are trying to discourage people with higher rates.

“It is growing fast, and I think Nova Scotia Power is trying to nip it in the bud,” he says.

In a media event held Friday, NS Power’s Dave Landrigan said those assumptions are false. He said the point of the rate application is to make cost sharing fairer.

“I strongly disagree with that (accusation),” said Landrigan. “We’re supportive of solar in the province.”

“Our present structure has non-solar customers subsidizing costs incurred to support solar customers.”

Landrigan pointed out that NS Power has, itself, invested in solar power, such as a recent solar farm in Amherst.

Brushett believes there is room for a compromise on what solar users should pay to access the grid, but the current plan by NS Power will cripple the industry.

“We’re all for working together and we truly believe there should have been more of an engagement process,” he says.

Brushett also points out that such a rate plan will discourage people from switching to clean energy at a time when the province has committed to net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Solar is a key technology for allowing us to meet these targets. This proposal from Nova Scotia Power directly contradicts the province’s ability to meet these targets.”

Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected]. With files from Anastasia Payne.