[0000.0-0004.0] If you are one of the thousands of British Columbians who purchased solar panels to cut
[0004.0-0009.0] down on your hydro bill, chances are you're not thrilled about changes coming next week.
[0009.0-0013.0] BC Hydro is tweaking an incentive program, and as Kendall Hansen tells us,
[0013.0-0017.0] it means less money in the pockets of solar panel owners.
[0017.0-0019.0] What have we got there, eight panels?
[0019.0-0022.0] Poor Del Bernie's bill, Collette, loves his solar panels.
[0022.0-0027.0] He installed 42 panels in the summer of 2023 and hasn't had to pay a hydro bill
[0027.0-0031.0] for more than two years under BC Hydro's net metering program.
[0031.0-0037.0] Like today with a nice sunny day, we'll generate close to 100 kilowatt hours of power.
[0037.0-0039.0] We'll use less than 10.
[0039.0-0045.0] So that access gets sent to BC Hydro for us to claw back at a later date.
[0045.0-0049.0] But BC Hydro informed him earlier this month the utility is ending the program
[0049.0-0053.0] with a new self-generation rate structure starting July 1st.
[0053.0-0055.0] Here's how it works.
[0055.0-0058.0] If you're on the old system, you're protected for 10 years from when you started.
[0058.0-0062.0] But after that BC Hydro will pay you 10 cents per kilowatt hour.
[0062.0-0066.0] That's instead of the current setup where you get a free kilowatt of power later
[0066.0-0071.0] in return for every excess kilowatt your panels send to the grid.
[0071.0-0075.0] Well today they charge us almost 11 cents a kilowatt hour.
[0075.0-0081.0] And in eight years from now they'll probably be charging us closer to 20 cents per kilowatt hour.
[0081.0-0088.0] So they're going to underpay us, obviously force us into paying for Hydro again,
[0088.0-0091.0] at least a portion of our Hydro.
[0091.0-0096.0] And that's just, to me it's pre-planned theft.
[0096.0-0100.0] BC Hydro says since starting the net metering program in 2004,
[0100.0-0105.0] close to 20,000 customers have joined in the cost of electricity it buys in the summer,
[0105.0-0109.0] doesn't have the same value as electricity in the winter.
[0109.0-0115.0] We have to make sure that what we're paying the customers truly reflects the cost for electricity
[0115.0-0120.0] and the cost for us to take it and then redistribute it and sell it back to our other customers.
[0120.0-0125.0] BC Hydro also notes the BC Utility Commission decided those pre-existing customers
[0125.0-0128.0] not be grandfathered for more than 10 years.
[0128.0-0135.0] With this new rate structure we want to do is move to a more fair rate for all our customers
[0135.0-0139.0] because we were basically subsidizing the net generation before,
[0139.0-0143.0] paying more than what the market rate for electricity would be.
[0143.0-0148.0] Collet isn't buying it, especially after spending thousands on solar panels under the old system.
[0148.0-0153.0] We did so, recognizing that yeah it would take a while to get that return,
[0153.0-0158.0] but we've invested it because we are doing our part in climate change
[0158.0-0161.0] and everything that we're all worried about.
[0161.0-0169.0] And so BC Hydro pretended to be a partner with us in 2023, but they're no longer a partner.
[0169.0-0171.0] They've pulled out of the partnership.
[0171.0-0174.0] Collet hopes there will be an uprising among solar producers
[0174.0-0179.0] and BC Hydro might reconsider the changes that he says would help convince others
[0179.0-0181.0] to also invest in solar power.