A controversial, yearslong quest by the Orlando Utilities Commission to overhaul its electricity billing to accommodate its increasing reliance on renewable energy ended Tuesday with a slam dunk vote in favor of the proposal.
OUC’s five-member board – composed of four appointees and the city’s mayor – is normally allergic to dissension in its ranks.
But led by Mayor Buddy Dyer, the board was particularly united and pointed in pushing back at politicians, environmentalists, solar industry representatives and others critical of changes in OUC’s electric rate structure.
New rate procedures to be implemented in coming years will roll back incentives for solar panels on resident’s rooftops and encourage residential customers to conserve how much power they consume – especially during the utility’s peak usage times.
“There is a lot of misinformation swirling around” said Dyer at OUC’s board meeting, before “belittling,” as he described his comments, hyperbole in the Sierra Club’s full-page advertisement in the Orlando Sentinel Tuesday that warned of “eye-popping fees” that “customers can’t avoid.”
Long before the vote occurred, Dyer announced that he was “very comfortable with what we are doing,” which all but foretold the outcome.
Nearly two dozen people spoke in opposition to the rate overhaul, addressing concerns that the rooftop solar industry will be devastated and that vulnerable residents – including renters, those with low incomes and medical issues and the elderly – would not be able to change their electricity use in order to avoid higher bills.
“I implore you to reject this proposal and at the very least delay this vote,” said Heaven Campbell, Florida program director for Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit that helps communities set up solar cooperatives.
Campbell protested that board members had heard relatively little from opponents and were misled by utility staff.
Also urging reconsideration were newly elected Orange County Commissioner Kelly Semrad; Orlando Commissioner Patty Sheehan, a longtime rooftop solar proponent; and state Rep. Anna V. Eskamani of Orlando, a veteran of contentious energy debates in the legislature.
OUC will reduce how much it pays for excess electricity from residents’ rooftop solar panels, cutting the rate from retail to wholesale. The utility contends the step is needed out of fairness to customers without solar panels and because solar systems are increasingly affordable.
One speaker labeled OUC’s proposed rate restructuring aimed at encouraging conservation as “un-American” because people won’t really change their habits.
OUC plans to phase out by 2050 its use of coal and natural gas to generate electricity, turning to enormous solar-panel operations and other renewable energy.
The municipal utility contends that the success of that transition depends on leveling out the use of electricity so that big spikes in power demand – occurring, for example, during summer afternoons and evenings – don’t overwhelm OUC’s system.
“Make no mistake,” said OUC board member Roger Chapin, “we want people to adjust their behavior.”