I think that the argument for having a fixed fee is pretty legitimate.
Having a grid connection provides reliability. Like, it’s useful for anyone to have a grid connection.
But someone’s gotta pay for all the infrastructure. Linemen don’t work for free.
Historically, the way this worked is that one just increased the variable costs – charge more per kilowatt-hour.
That historically worked fine, but when people started doing their own generation, solar and such, that cut into how much energy they used from the grid…but they still retained the grid connection, which wasn’t cheaper to provide. What it does is transfer the cost of maintaining the infrastructure onto others.
The only way to make the pricing reflect the underlying costs that the utility companies see – some of which are fixed, and some of which are variable – is to have separate fees for usage (variable) and for grid connectivity (fixed).
All that being said, I think that there may be plenty of room to raise issues with California’s energy policy, including why California’s prices are as high as they are in the first place. But I don’t think that the issue is the existence of a connectivity fee.
I think that the argument for having a fixed fee is pretty legitimate.
Having a grid connection provides reliability. Like, it’s useful for anyone to have a grid connection.
But someone’s gotta pay for all the infrastructure. Linemen don’t work for free.
Historically, the way this worked is that one just increased the variable costs – charge more per kilowatt-hour.
That historically worked fine, but when people started doing their own generation, solar and such, that cut into how much energy they used from the grid…but they still retained the grid connection, which wasn’t cheaper to provide. What it does is transfer the cost of maintaining the infrastructure onto others.
The only way to make the pricing reflect the underlying costs that the utility companies see – some of which are fixed, and some of which are variable – is to have separate fees for usage (variable) and for grid connectivity (fixed).
All that being said, I think that there may be plenty of room to raise issues with California’s energy policy, including why California’s prices are as high as they are in the first place. But I don’t think that the issue is the existence of a connectivity fee.