Oklahoma Adds Fee For Homes To Connect Solar, Wind Power To Grid

Renewable-energy advocates have cranked up the outrage machine at a surcharge imposed by Oklahoma on homes that connect rooftop solar panels or wind-turbine generators to the grid.

Ten days ago, the Oklahoma House passed S.B. 1455 without debate, and Governor Mary Fallin is expected to sign it.

The bill provides that by the end of next year, customers who want to connect new renewable energy to the power grid (and be paid by the utility for the power they generate) must pay a surcharge of unspecified amount.

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The amount of that surchage has not yet been determined, though a similar fee on homes with grid-connected solar panels in Arizona last year was set at $5 a month.

Customers with existing grid-connected renewable power sources would not be charged.

The bill was backed by the state's electric utilities, Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma. A representative of PSO said the bill "levels the playing field, where one customer class was subsidizing another.”

Seeing the growing spread of dispersed renewable energy, the utilities effectively say that those homes benefit from access to the power grid as a backup, but will not pay their full share of the costs of maintaining it if they buy only a fraction of the electricity they used to.

The new rule came in an amendment to an unrelated bill, an increasingly popular way for a variety of interests to get legislation passed with little public debate.

(Some of the state laws, backed by auto-dealer lobbies, that forbid Tesla Motors from selling cars directly to buyers have come via similar tactics.)