6.2. ERMUSR 04-14-2009 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Feed=in Tariff Legi la~ion - - ;Minnesota municipal utilities have the requirement that the Minnesota • increase the rates of-other custom- long embraced the use'of renewable h Public Utilities Commission delay the ers by imposing charges for renew- generation to meet t e electric implementation of the standard if it able energy from various sources energy needs of the: citizens of h ir ' determines impacts on utility hosts, that wilt be significantly higher, t e communities. They have been including competitive pressures on than current market rates; motivated by the need to secure customers, is not in the public interest. wholesale power that will result • .undermine the development of in reliable and reasonably priced Despite this key consumer protection more efficient renewable devel- service to their customers. It was provision, legislation has recently been o..pment at far-more competitive- for that reason, more than 50 years introduced in the Minnesota Legisla- prices; ago, that municipal: utilities in .tore that would require utilities to: western Minnesota-began making • negate the important consumer commitments to purchase wholesale • purchase renewable energy from protection provisions included in power from federal hydroelectric projects connected to their local the RES legislation; dams at a time when power from distribution systems for 20 years at conventional. sources would have'been prices well above market rates-, • cause a potential degradation to less expensive and, it seemed, possibly a community's electric system even more reliable. It is with this same • provide for interconnection of re- reliability and cause an increase . . sense_of responsibility that municipal newable projects with retail utility in unsafe yvorking conditionsfor utilities are approaching the effort to systems, electrical line workers, brought on develop wind and other renewables by the law's requirement to accom- in order to meet a portion of their • charge specified amounts for pow- modate any renewable generation electricity needs. er purchase agreements-with the at any point on an electric system; qualifying owners of renewable and In 2007 Minnesota enacted one of electricityprojects ranging from the most comprehensive renewable 10.5 cents per kWh for wind to 61 • place bond ratings in jeopardy as energy standard (RES)-laws in the cents-per kWh for solar; the result of the expensive micro- United States. Patterned after a management of renewable re- comprehensive proposal developed • submit redundant and unnecessary source development. by the 1Vlinnesota Municipal reports on program participation. ..Utilities Association (MMUA) and passed with the support of MMUA opposes this legislation be- utilities and environmentalists, the cause it would: legislation requires investor-owned --- utilities, generation & transmission • interfere with, negotiations be- cooperatives and municipaLpower tween renewable energy suppliers - - agencies to produce-.2596 of their and utilities; `electricity from renewable resources by -the year 2025. • impose unrealistic and unjustified state ratemaking on locally owned `One of the provisions of the legisla- and self=regulated municipal elec- 'tlon that makes the,RES workable is tric utilities;