In the Matter of the Petition of Northern States Power Company dba Xcel Energy, for Approval of Its Proposed Community Solar Garden Program
Minnesota Public Utilities Commission
Docket No. E-002/M-13-867, 2016 WL 4701453 (Sept. 6, 2016)
- Written by Robert Cane, JD
Facts
The Northern States Power Company d/b/a Xcel Energy (Xcel) (plaintiff) applied to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (the commission), seeking approval of its solar-garden program. The community-solar-garden statute required Xcel to purchase all energy generated by solar gardens at the applicable retail rate until the commission approved a value-of-solar rate. Solar gardens were solar-generating facilities under 1 megawatt each. Customers of Xcel were permitted to subscribe to solar gardens and receive a bill credit for the energy generated by the garden at the solar-garden bill-credit rate. The commission had yet to approve a value-of-solar rate, so Xcel offered subscribers the applicable retail rate for the energy purchased. Xcel was also required to offer to purchase renewable-energy credits (RECs) associated with the solar gardens. Over the course of several years, the commission issued several orders related to the solar-garden program. In its orders, the commission had concluded that more time was necessary to gain experience with the solar-garden program before making changes to rates. Numerous groups commented on the transition to a value-of-solar rate. The groups fell into three categories: (1) advocates to keep the retail rate, (2) advocates to adopt a value-of-solar rate, and (3) advocates for reducing the applicable retail rate. Xcel was in the third category, and it also asserted that the methodology for determining the value-of-solar rate needed to change. Some groups recommended that the commission adopt bill-credit adders using methodology from the Department of Commerce to encourage solar development. The commission considered the arguments from the various groups.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning ()
What to do next…
Here's why 796,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,200 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.