SCE Minimum Bill Charge from $2 to $10

[smkettner]

I still think the minimum fee should be based on the size of the main breaker.
200 amp house should pay more than a 60 amp apartment. $10 vs $3?
It is all about installed infrastructure right?

What if you could downgrade to a 20 amp main with any surge coming from a Power Wall etc.
This should allow the utility to stop upgrading.

Of course a business with 1,000 amps and 600 volt service would have a huge minimum to carry the cost to guaranty power at that level.

[DarthPuppy]

The claim that solar homes cost the utilities more is utility company propaganda.

The grid isn't a 'battery' being provided for free. Solar customers provide extra power to the grid when the grid gets hit with the heaviest load from air conditioning. This reduces the total production the utility needs to fire up. Any utility will first use the cheap stuff and only bring online the more expensive sources when forced to. Further, these homes buy back at night when the utility has the lowest cost operations because demand is lower. And these customers use their own funds to build what amounts to a large collective power plant that the utilities buy from at low rates during peak demand when they would otherwise have to use more expensive resources or build additional plants themselves at considerable financial cost. The result = lower costs for the utility not their claimed 'burden' that isn't being appropriately shared by the solar homes.

Technically, yes, $10/month isn't a large amount. But so many burdensome taxes/fees are put in place using the argument that it is just a small amount and justified by x and y. Not many stay small over time.

Note: I acknowledge that the installation of this power plant is subsidized by the Federal and various state tax incentives/rebates. If these are no longer considered good public policy, that is a different discussion. Encouraging people to install through incentives and then charging them extra for doing so afterwards is not appropriate. The different public policy arms (Federal/state/CPUC) should to be in sync and sending the same message. Is solar good or bad public policy?