How many showed interest in City Utilities' solar power program?
It fell far short of selling out, but City Utilities' inaugural solar power program had a respectable showing, an official with the public utility said Tuesday.
A total of 184 customers subscribed to 1,600 kilowatts produced by a Greene County solar farm by the Sept. 30 close of the yearlong sign-up period for the utility's Solar Initiative. That's just under a third of the 4,950 kilowatts that were available — an amount estimated to be enough to power about 902 homes in Springfield annually.
"I think we're pleased with the way it turned out," Cara Shaefer, CU's director of energy services and renewables, told the News-Leader.
The approximately 40-acre solar farm to the east of Springfield began producing power in June 2014. It's located on land owned by CU, although the equipment is owned and operated by North Carolina-based Strata Solar.
CU's Solar Initiative, launched later that summer, allowed customers to essentially purchase blocks of the 4,950-kilowatt output capacity of the system. Although the power produced by the farm simply feeds into CU's electric grid, and isn't directly transmitted to subscribers, the program hoped to attract customers interested in supporting renewable energy but hesitant to install their own solar panels.
There are several components of CU rates, but essentially solar subscribers have their normal fuel adjustment factor — which changes every six months — replaced with a solar fuel adjustment factor of 4.04 cents per kilowatt hour, a rate that is locked in for 20 years. Depending on how energy rates rise, the setup could theoretically mean the normal fuel adjustment factor will be more than the solar fuel adjustment factor at some point in the future — meaning solar customers would pay less than others for energy. However, there's no guarantee that would happen within the 20-year lifetime of the program.
When the rate was proposed, it was calculated that average residential users who replaced their usage with a 6-kilowatt solar subscription would pay about an extra $45 a month, for a total monthly bill of $136.51.
During the rate approval process last year, the local chapter of the Sierra Club opposed the plan to essentially charge more for solar power, arguing that the cost of other power generation methods like burning coal is artificially low.
Sierra Club opposes plan to charge more for solar
Ultimately, Shaefer said Tuesday, four commercial/industrial costumers subscribed to a total 900 kilowatts through the program. Another 180 residential customers subscribed to a cumulative 700 kilowatts. The amounts subscribed to by residential customers were "across the gamut," Shaefer said — some replaced their full energy usage, while others went for a portion.
Ongoing operation of the solar farm was never contingent on the demand. The sign-up period had to end even with blocks of energy available because of the rate lock-in, Shaefer said.
Prior to the launch of the program last year, CU officials publicly said they weren't sure what demand would be, but they would monitor demand to prepare for the future.
"This is a new program for us," Shaefer told the Board of Public Utilities in August 2014. "We don't know what's going to happen."
"I hope this thing sells out quickly," CU General Manager Scott Miller said at the same meeting. "And if it does sell out quickly, I think that's a very interesting signal back to us, and then we've got to figure out what that means to us long-term."
Tuesday, Shaefer said this was the first program of its kind in Missouri, and that the future of solar power at CU is an "ongoing conversation."
"I think this shows that customers are interested (in solar power), and they're interested in it from utilities."