EGN NEWS DESK
Given that deficit, and the grid’s persistent shortcomings, Puerto Rico’s lawmakers handed Act 10 in January, which amends an present net-metering legislation to cement the coverage in place for the subsequent seven years.
Before Governor Pierluisi signed the legislation, the Puerto Rico Energy Bureau had been scheduled to reevaluate this system — a transfer that photo voltaic proponents anxious would result in weaker incentives. Now, beneath Act 10, the bureau can’t undertake a complete overview of internet metering till January 2030, and any adjustments wouldn’t take impact till the next yr.
The FOMB argues that Act 10 imposes “corrosive and harmful politically motivated restrictions on the Energy Bureau” and is pushed by particular curiosity teams, together with the island’s rooftop photo voltaic installer foyer. Act 10 goes towards the intentions of a separate 2019 legislation, referred to as Act 17, that established the bureau as an impartial power regulator, the board mentioned.
“The power system has solely simply begun to get better from many years of political mismanagement that left the folks of Puerto Rico with a failing electrical system,” Robert F. Mujica Jr., FOMB’s govt director, wrote in a July 29 column.
The new legislation “removes the referee from an vital aspect of Puerto Rico’s power transformation. It is as if we take away the umpire for one inning. It’s not how a good recreation is performed,” he mentioned. “That is why the Oversight Board believes Act 10 should not stand.”
The oversight board insists that it helps internet metering, rooftop photo voltaic, and Puerto Rico’s broader efforts to attain 100 % renewables. On its web site, the FOMB says that invalidating Act 10 gained’t change the present net-metering program or stop new prospects from enrolling. Instead, it’ll create house “for an sincere dialogue primarily based on details and knowledge” by permitting the Energy Bureau to finish its examine, which might in the end uphold internet metering.
A draft model of the Energy Bureau’s examine, printed in June, raises questions on whether or not internet metering is essentially the most environment friendly or equitable pricing mechanism for driving renewable power adoption, significantly as residential rooftop photo voltaic grows. The regulator argues that net-metering prospects are overcompensated in comparison with the worth of service they supply to the broader grid — a shortfall that’s borne by utility prospects that don’t take part in internet metering.
“New strategies have to [be] explored and adopted,” in line with the draft report, which referred to as for a “collaborative method” to evaluating and implementing net-metering options.
The debate is paying homage to battles enjoying out in states like Arizona, California, Hawaii, and Nevada, the place critics of these net-metering regimes say the insurance policies unjustly shift prices from those that can afford photo voltaic to those that can’t. Meanwhile, photo voltaic trade advocates and environmental teams argue that weakening internet metering will sluggish momentum for rooftop photo voltaic at a pivotal second within the nation’s clear power transition. In California, residence rooftop photo voltaic tasks have plummeted since regulators slashed incentives final yr.
For Puerto Ricans, “Net metering is the one factor that exists that offers folks an extra monetary cause to maneuver in the direction of photo voltaic,” mentioned Ortiz of Solar United Neighbors. The nonprofit works with communities to develop solar-powered resilience facilities, which give locations for folks to chill off, refrigerate their drugs, and search shelter throughout climate occasions and grid outages. He mentioned the facilities use the electrical energy invoice financial savings to supply such providers to residents.
“When I hear them [FOMB] say they’re solely attempting to look out for the curiosity of the folks, it actually considerations me,” Ortiz mentioned. “Because that is the desire of the folks, that the net-metering legislation must be left as is.”
