Michael Picker, Chairman of California’s PUC has indicated support for new fast-track legislation to enable PGE to pass along fire-related costs to ratepayers.
“It’s not good policy to have utilities unable to finance the services and infrastructure the state of California needs,” Picker told Bloomberg after the call. “They have to have stability and economic support to get the dollars they need right now.”
This all follows the companies pulling down of all revolving lines of credit and reporting of inadequate insurance levels to cover anticipated fire related future expenses. PGE’s stock price had fallen by more than 60% as Moody and S&P downgraded the companies credit rating to near junk levels on Thursday.
Changes in the electrical cost structure for California residents will likely secure the continued movement toward residential solar power. 2019 will be interesting as it is the last year for the full 30% tax credit for solar PV. It is expected that many home and business owners will rush to beat the utility rate increases and secure the tax credit before the 12/31/2019 ITC decline begins.
Will PGE’s losses be passed on to ratepayers? Many expect the obvious.
PGE’s stock continued a free fall with nearly 22% losses in one day, making the five day losses totaling nearly 50%.
As losses mount due to claims from California wildfires, PGE has exhausted its revolving lines of credit, and warned it’s liability insurance may fall short of potential liability claims for the recent fire.
“The cause of the fire has not been determined, so it’s not clear if we’re going to be held responsible,” said Ms. Williams, the companies chief executive.
If PGE is held to account for fire related losses, many see now way to avoid those costs from being passed on to the ratepayers. PGE has already sought unsuccessfully to have the California legislature shield against fire losses. The last shoe is yet to fall.
SunnyCal now offers solar systems with battery backup for partial or full off-grid power. Most PGE customers can achieve more independence through reduced vulnerability to ever increasing rate increases.
By installing GEN-3 solar inverters, customers continue to have power, even when the utility power fails. This enables power for refrigerators and water pumping during power outages. If batteries are added, electrical power can continue at night. Customers can choose to backup entire houses or only a few critical circuits.
Retrofits are available for existing solar systems.
SunnyCal introduced a new solar support support stand for solar and spa pool heaters. This galvanized structure can be purchased on 4 ft width segments, for module lengths from 6 to 12 ft long.
The stands are ground mounted, with adjustable leg heights to accommodate off-level variable terrain. Assembly requires standard handheld drill with screwdriver tips and drill bit.
SunnyCal just completed a major off-grid residential system upgrade in the California foothils. The customer wanted it all…power for his home, power for drying room, power for greenhouses, power for water well. With three mini-split AC units, three outbuildings, and numerous house guests, it was a pretty tall order.
His old system was barely able to provide for basic lighting and appliances.
Ancient solar inverter and charge controllerOld Lead Acid Battery
The system we installed had the following equipment:
New Off Grid System
1) Two 6kW inverter power
2) Two 3800W charge controllers
3) Twenty-eight 270W solar modules (7560W)
4) 20kW of lithium batteries
5) 12V solar systems in two shed structures
6) Outdoor distribution board to distribute power to five seasonal greenhouse.
7) Diesel generator start/stop control to
New Lithium Battery Tower
boost battery charge if needed.
The final system is able to operate all customer loads with no concern for power dropout or restart headached. Recent weeks have seen heavy AC cooling use, full-on harvest work, and ramp-up of drying room environmental control. So far the generator has only been needed when operating the additional sustained load of the well pump for many hours across several days.
Going forward, the customer indicates he will probably add another bank of batteries in order to power sustained surge use…but he is in no hurry.
Michael Picker, Chairman of California’s PUC has indicated support for new fast-track legislation to enable PGE to pass along fire-related costs to ratepayers.
