Alabama PSC Reporter (2024)

22/06/2022

For those that are under the mistaken impression that the grid is needed to charge an electric vehicle.

15/06/2022

Is the Alabama Public Service Commission protecting the ratepayer or the utility company’s bottom line?

In 2013 Alabama Power convinced the Alabama Public Service Commission (APSC) to approve their plan for a capacity reservation charge, commonly referred to as the “solar” or “sun tax”. The fee was set at $5 per kilowatt of solar capacity per month. For homeowners with a 5-kilowatt rooftop solar system the charge results in an additional $300 charge per year. In April of 2018 a complaint was filed challenging the fee by the Southern Environmental Law Center for the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution and two customers who were paying the fee. In 2020 the APSC, by a 3-0 vote, granted Alabama Power’s motion to dismiss the complaint. But the APSC didn’t stop by just ruling in favor of Alabama Power keeping the original fee. They rubbed salt in the wound and approved Alabama Power’s request to increase the fee from $5 per kilowatt per month to $5.41 per kilowatt per month. So now a customer with a 5-kilowatt solar rooftop system is paying $324.60 extra per year to Alabama Power for the privilege of owning their own solar system.

Alabama Power contends that the fee is needed to cover the costs of having power available for solar customers when their systems don’t produce enough electricity to power their homes or businesses. Alabama Power pricing manager Natalie Dean testifying during a public hearing said, “The capacity reservation charge recovers the cost of providing backup power service to those customers when they need it,”.

A lawsuit was filed on July 12, 2021 by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Ragsdale LLC in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery against the APSC for approving Alabama Power’s “solar tax” on customers with solar systems. The lawsuit follows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision not to take enforcement action against the PSC. The lawsuit is currently making its way through the federal court system.

We call horse hockey on Alabama Power but more specifically the APSC for approving this fee and its subsequent increase. The energy from the sun is free to all of us and should not be subjected to a tax.

What do you think?

10/06/2022

The Alabama Public Service Commission was created in 1915 by the Alabama Legislature. The Commission consists of three elected members: a president and two associate commissioners. All three members are elected at-large from across the state of Alabama. The only qualification for members of the Public Service Commission is outlined in Code of Alabama, Section 37-1-6 "No person owning any stock in any utility, or in the employment of any utility or pecuniarily interested in any utility, as defined in this title, shall be eligible to the office of public service commissioner". While commissioners cannot be employees or own stock in any utility they can and frequently do take campaign contributions from those they regulate, whether from direct contributions or through Political Action Committees.

Twinkle Cavanaugh was elected President of the PSC in 2010 and has served in that position since. She is up for reelection in 2024.
Her salary in 2021 was $106,595.

Jeremy Oden was appointed to a Place 1 vacancy on the PSC by Governor Robert Bentley on November 30, 2012. He was elected to a full term in 2014 and has served in that position since. He is up for reelection this year. His salary in 2021 was $99,488.

Chris V. (Chip) Beeker, Jr. was elected to Place 2 on the PSC in 2014 and has served in that position since. He is up for reelection this year. His salary in 2021 was $99,488.

Per their 2021 annual report the PSC employs approximately 66 persons.

In the next post we'll look at some of the more consequential decisions the commission has made in recent years.

09/06/2022

Many of the citizens of Alabama aren't aware of regulatory power of the Alabama Public Service Commission. Did you know that in addition to regulation of electrical rates of Alabama Power, the Public Service Commission also regulates all investor-owned natural gas distribution, transportation, storage, and intrastate natural gas pipelines, telecom services, jurisdiction over companies that operate certain decentralized wastewater systems, inspects all natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline systems operating in Alabama, including offshore drilling facilities located in state waters, responsible for the supervision and financial regulation of air and motor carriers, inspects railroad common carriers’ track, and rolling stock and rail equipment operating in Alabama for compliance with state and federal safety standards and monitors compliance with regulations for Railroad Workplace Safety?

Over the next days and weeks we'll dive into this little known arm of Alabama state government that has so much influence on the daily lives of the state's citizens.

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