Bill Text: HI HCR150 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: PUC; Solar Energy; HEI; Electricity Rates

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-03-24 - The committee(s) on EEP recommend(s) that the measure be deferred. [HCR150 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2015-HCR150-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	150
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2015
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

 

urging the public utilities commission to act in the public interest regarding solar energy interconnection, and to not be influenced by pressure from a regulated utility.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission is responsible for regulating all chartered, franchised, certificated, and registered public utility companies that provide electricity, gas, telecommunications, private water and sewage, and motor and water carrier transportation services in the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission's primary purpose is to ensure that regulated companies efficiently and safely provide their customers with adequate and reliable services at just and reasonable rates, while providing regulated companies with a fair opportunity to earn a reasonable rate of return; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission has statutory authority to establish and enforce applicable state statutes, administrative rules, and decisions, and to set policies and standards; and

 

     WHEREAS, in addition to the Public Utilities Commission's traditional duty to oversee and regulate public utilities to ensure the provision of essential and reliable service at just and reasonable rates, the Legislature has entrusted the Commission with increased authority and discretion in implementing the State’s clean energy policies; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State's abundant sunshine is an important source of clean solar energy that can be captured and harnessed by photovoltaic systems; and

 

     WHEREAS, many electricity consumers have installed solar energy systems at their homes, businesses, or other facilities; and

 

     WHEREAS, many additional electricity consumers also desire to install solar energy systems; and

 

     WHEREAS, approximately two thousand six hundred applications are currently pending statewide from consumers who seek to connect solar energy systems to Hawaiian Electric Company electricity grids; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Hawaiian Electric Companies are subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries and include Hawaiian Electric Company on Oahu, Maui Electric Company on Maui, and Hawaii Electric Light Company on Hawaii island; and

 

     WHEREAS, the Public Utilities Commission sets the rate that those companies must pay customers for each kilowatt-hour of excess electric power that a customer's solar energy system feeds into the company's electricity grid; and

 

     WHEREAS, on January 20, 2015, Hawaiian Electric Companies requested that the Public Utilities Commission reduce the rate that the utility pays solar customers on Oahu for excess electric power from twenty-nine cents to fifteen cents per kilowatt-hour, and for similar reductions on the neighbor islands; and

 

     WHEREAS, Hawaii Electric Light Company recently sent letters informing applicants in areas with high solar energy production that it will not approve their requests to connect solar systems to the electricity grid until the Public Utilities Commission decides on the request to reduce the rate for excess energy fed into the grid; and

 

     WHEREAS, these letters state that "Until the Public Utilities Commission makes a decision on our proposal, it is in the best interest of all customers and the utility to suspend approving additional interconnections in areas highly saturated with distributed generation other than interconnections for those customers who applied for interconnection on or before Oct. 22, 2014," and

 

     WHEREAS, by taking those actions, Hawaii Electric Light Company appears to be attempting to stall customers' interconnection in order to pressure the Public Utilities Commission to approve the rate reduction request; and

 

     WHEREAS, it appears that Hawaii Electric Light Company is engaging in a pressure tactic by refusing to approve new solar energy connection permits in neighborhoods with high solar energy production until the Public Utilities Commission approves the request to reduce the rate that a utility must pay to customers for excess energy fed by solar systems into the electricity grid; and

 

     WHEREAS, knowledgeable observers have noted that those actions smack of the abuse of monopoly power and an attempt by a regulated public utility to deny service to customers in order to force policy changes that benefit the utility; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2015, the Senate concurring, that the Public Utilities Commission is urged to fulfill its duty to act in the public interest regarding solar energy interconnection; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Utilities Commission is urged to not be influenced or coerced by pressure from any utility; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Public Utilities Commission is urged to decide a utility's rate reduction request strictly on the merits of the request and the duty to ensure that regulated companies efficiently and safely provide their customers with adequate and reliable services at just and reasonable rates, while providing regulated companies with a fair opportunity to earn a reasonable rate of return; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Chair and each member of the Public Utilities Commission, and the Chair and each member of the Board of Directors of Hawaiian Electric Industries.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

PUC; Solar Energy; HEI; Electricity Rates