Big Wins for Renewable Energy and Transparency in Utility Rate Making
Nelson Mullins Energy Team members Weston Adams and Court Walsh represented a large-scale solar developer before the S.C. Public Service Commission (PSC) in two recently decided high profile matters likely to have positive impacts for the renewable energy industry and ratepayers in South Carolina. On December 10, 2020, in orders issued in two separate PSC dockets, the PSC: (1) Rejected Dominion Energy South Carolina’s (Dominion Energy) required integrated resource plan (IRP) for providing power, saying the utility, among other shortcomings, did not sufficiently analyze the use of renewable energy in its plans; and (2) Adopted a proposed regulation affirming the independence of third-party consultants engaged by the PSC to assist it in avoided cost matters, thus rejecting the language proposed by utilities.
Dominion Energy unveils job-killing, rate-hiking solar fees
COLUMBIA, SC Just days before Christmas, Dominion Energy South Carolina has unveiled a slate of newly proposed fees and rate changes that will cause solar-industry workers to lose their jobs, force solar customers to pay considerably more, and all but eliminate one of the simplest options for homeowners to reduce power bills in a region where they already pay among the highest electricity costs in the country.
The Dominion proposal would add roughly $650 in new mandatory annual fees to the bill of a typical solar customer. The newly proposed “subscription fee” is effectively a new solar tax that is on top of Dominion’s move to more than double the existing customer charge for solar-panel owners.
The U.S. Southeast’s biggest utilities have filed plans for a Southeast Energy Exchange Market, an electricity trading platform that they say could reduce power prices for about 50 million people and better integrate the region’s growing share of clean power in years to come.
But clean-energy advocates and big corporate energy buyers worry that the plan submitted to North and South Carolina regulators on Friday could divert efforts in both states to explore wider-ranging electricity system planning and integration across the region.
Friday’s announcement from Duke Energy marks the first official step in a plan first revealed this summer. The modern, technology-enabled 15-minute energy trading market being proposed would replace the bilateral electricity trading now conducted by the region’s utilities, including Southern Company, Dominion Energy South Carolina and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
SCEMD: Relief valve caused loud boom heard, felt across the Midlands WIS News 10 Staff
COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - Did you feel a tremor Friday night?
Many WIS viewers in the Midlands reported possibly feeling an earthquake under their feet in West Columbia, Cayce, and even in downtown Columbia.
@GregWISTV@JudiGatson Just felt a rumble in Cayce like we feel when the quarry uses dynamite. Kinda late for that. Peter Hamlett (@PeterHamlett) December 12, 2020
Felt it in downtown Columbia too Jarod Holt (@jarodholt) December 12, 2020
Saturday morning, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division reported a 2.4 magnitude earthquake did occur in the Midlands around 8:37 p.m. Friday night.