By Jeff St. John
For the last two years, Duke Energy has worked with key solar industry and environmental groups to reach a compromise on a plan to revamp net-metering policy in the utility’s core Carolinas territories.
Now that compromise — the result of a settlement reached for South Carolina in 2020 and for North Carolina late last year — is under attack from a different set of North Carolina rooftop solar installers and environmental allies who say it unfairly undermines the value of rooftop solar for customers.
The compromise plan is also being questioned by the state’s Attorney General’s Office, which last week asked the North Carolina Utilities Commission to postpone approving the plan until the state can answer this question: What is the value of rooftop solar to Duke and its customers, both in financial terms and in terms of meeting North Carolina’s newly passed targets for reducing carbon emissions?