Is BC Hydro about to Kill Solar Energy in BC?
On April 20th BC Hydro announced changes to the net-metering program. The announcement was made late on a Friday afternoon, which is when one makes announcements that you hope the public and media will ignore. About 95% of the projects under net-metering are solar energy (photovoltaic) projects. The immediate change would limit the size of projects based on the utility customer's electrical consumption in the prior year. It would also end the payment for excess annual power. This change won't have a major affect on new participation since most projects would fall below this threshold. What is more worrisome is the contents of the submission to the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) which will need to approve the change. In the submission it is clear that BC Hydro thinks that there is already too much enrolment in the net-metering program. And they state they will further review the program and make another submission to the BCUC before the end of the year. Reading between the