DTE finally eliminates net invoicing – pv magazine USA

May 2, 2019 Tim Sylvia

At a hearing before the Michigan Public Utilities Board (PSC), DTE Energy finally got its title: the removal of net billing in its service area. And the writing was on the walls for almost three years.

In 2016, the Michigan legislature passed Laws 341 and 342, which required the PSC to phase out net metering and create a new decentralized generation program. The PSC was also responsible for measuring and pricing "incoming and outgoing electricity flows from a distributed generation customer on an instantaneous basis" and established "a method for consistent and appropriate cost of service billing".

What happened next is that DTE proposed that electricity consumed by a customer of the network be billed at the customer's full retail rate and that the energy it sends to the network be credited to the customer at the price of the customer. average monthly wholesale. d & # 39; energy; an input / output model in which one stream was valued much more than the other.

This initial proposal was rejected by the PSC, which ordered that the exit credit be based on the food component of the retail rate of the customer, less the cost of transmission. This was done because the board felt that the DTE would get credit for a transmission that it did not provide. Finally, the final approved release credit for DTE was 7.477 ¢ / kWh for the first 17 kWh per day.

All this became final with the announcement of the commission that:

Today, in accordance with the laws of 2016, the Board is making a historic decision regarding the phase-out of net billing and a new methodology that reflects a cost of service for customers participating in the program. .

Here is a fun little graphic showing the payback period of a residential system under the new guidelines:

Here's how the replacement of the net billing will affect the return on investment for DTE's rooftop solar clients – compared to the original policy and what DTE had proposed. pic.twitter.com/kJZKelTcNU

– Jim Malewitz (@Jmalewitz) May 2, 2019

The greatest savior, if it is possible to say that for distributed solar energy in the DTE service area comes from a motion that the board rejected, DTE also seeking to establish a contribution tax to the system access for distributed resource owners. As reported by pv magazine at the beginning of the proposal, these costs would have been $ 2.28 to $ 2.31 per kilowatt, based on the rated capacity of the photovoltaic system. This accusation was defended by the contestable assertion that these customers "do not bear the costs of the infrastructure required for their services".

So for the sake of clarity, in this case, the PSC accused DTE of obtaining a credit for a transmission it did not provide and DTE accused the customers of not bearing the costs of the infrastructure required for their services.

Finally, state regulators have also approved a substantial price increase for DTE customers, which increases prices by almost 9% for an average consumption of 500 kilowatt hours of electricity per month. In dollars, these customers will see their bills increase by $ 6.19.

At the end of the day, it's Michigan and DTE. The removal of net billing is a fact acquired for years now, it turned out to be the date of execution. All decisions made today: the new compensation model, the rejection of access fees and rate increases will come into effect in a week, May 9.