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Forty-three states have some sort of power-swapping plan, most of which include a cap on how large the programs can grow. There are 283,000 electric customers participating in these programs in the U.S. as of July, according to the Energy Department. Solar advocates argue rooftop systems instead benefit other customers and the grid. When a home uses the power produced by solar panels, it pulls less power through the system. Even when the panels are producing more power than needed at home, the excess goes to the closest house that needs power
-- and not through the whole system -- as a matter of physics. Both scenarios mean less stress on the grid. "Solar customers are paying more than their fair share," says Sunrun's Miller. Utilities disagree, and have proposed charging special fees or rolling back power-swapping rate plans in Georgia, Arizona, California and Idaho. Arizona Public Service Co. officials estimate that a typical solar customer is avoiding $1,000 a year in payments to support the electricity grid. The company proposes either charging new solar users a rate that recaptures more of the utility's costs or reducing the benefit of the energy swapping program. California utilities made a similar push recently. Legislators there voted in September to allow the state's solar rate plan to continue and even expand for now, but said it would change the way the state structures rates in a way that may address utilities' concerns. A report commissioned by state regulators and released last week says non-solar customers in the current rate system are paying between $75 million and $254 million per year in extra grid costs now, and that could expand to $1.1 billion per year by 2020. Georgia Power has asked regulators to add a new fee for solar customers who install new systems beginning next year. Alternatively, those new solar customers could buy power at prices that the utility says better recoups its costs. The solar industry in Georgia is fighting the proposal. "If I turn off my lights, the power company shouldn't send me a bill," says James Marlow, CEO of Radiance Solar in Atlanta. Power companies say Marlow should at least pay for the option of turning the lights back on when the sun isn't shining. The question for both sides to resolve is how much.
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