Green Mountain Power Corp. has pledged to make Rutland the state's "solar city," and the power company has some expertise in that area with its three-year-old SolarGMP program.
SolarGMP pays customers a premium for power generated from small-scale solar installations at homes and businesses. GMP itself has installed several solar facilities at its offices around the state, including a 58-kilowatt system in Westminster, a 138-kilowatt system in Montpelier, and a 150-kilowatt system at Shelburne Farms, which provide power to their respective GMP offices. GMP also installed a 200-kilowatt solar system in Berlin that provides power to the electrical grid for all its customers.
Making Rutland the state's "solar city" — creating more solar power generation per capita than any other community in Vermont — is part of the commitment GMP made when it announced last month that Gaz Metro, its parent company, would acquire Rutland-based Central Vermont Public Service Corp. for $702 million.
"We've done a lot of solar work, and we see it has a role to play in Vermont's energy future, and we think there is lot of potential in Rutland," GMP spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure said. "So we're going to be putting our heads together with other people in the community to figure out how best to make Rutland a solar city."
GMP's solar customers are credited 14 cents per kilowatt hour, plus a 6-cent premium. The solar power produced to run a customer's home or small business replaces the power they would have to buy from GMP. If a solar customer produces more power in any one month than they use, GMP credits their account for that amount, Schnure said.
"Under SolarGMP, they get the additional financial benefit of generating their own power from solar," Schnure said, "and then, if they generate more than they use, we buy that from them at the combined cost of our rate (14 cents) plus the 6 cents."
The state's second largest electric utility has a sound business reason for paying a premium.
Schnure said wholesale power is more expensive to buy during peak periods, and the SolarGMP program helps offset that cost.
"The most expensive time to buy power on the New England System is on hot summer days," she said, "and solar produces its most energy on summer days and doesn't produce any energy on the off-peak nighttimes."
Over the last three years, GMPSolar has gone from 66 customers to 389 customers. Most are residential customers, who have installed net metering systems that feed into the electric grid.
Schnure said solar installers target the GMP service territory because of the additional financial incentive. She said the company has also made the process of connecting as a solar customer "very smooth."
Andrew Savage of AllEarth Renewables said thanks to GMP, the solar premium is now offered by all utilities in the state.
"In fact, the SolarGMP program provided the impetus for the Legislature's action this past year creating a statewide adder (premium)," said Savage, whose company sells and installs solar tracking systems.
As a result of the GMP premium, Savage said AllEarth Renewables has "seen the interest in solar blossom throughout GMP's territory."
George Twigg, a spokesman for Renewable Energy Resource Center in Burlington, said the SolarGMP 6-cent premium is a valuable tool along with tax incentives to encourage the use of solar energy.
"These different types of rates and incentives help to make the systems affordable … in combination with energy efficiency because ultimately the energy you don't use is the least expensive energy of all," Twigg said.
Savage said the payback on a $30,000, 4.1-kilowatt solar system sold by his company is less than 10 years. He said the company offers a power purchase agreement where the customer makes a low down payment, pays $98 a month, receives the energy benefit to offset their electric bill, and can buy the system after five years for 30 percent of the original cost or opt to renew their contract for another five years. He said the company receives whatever federal and state tax incentives are available.
GMP believes solar has a place in the state's energy future and a recently released report by the Department of Public Service supports that belief. The report found that, in general, Vermonters support efforts to promote solar, wind power and energy efficiency.
Schnure said although solar remains a very small percentage of the company's power portfolio, it helps offset some of the peak load purchased on the wholesale market.
Savage said the statewide incentive should help propel the use of solar "across all regions of Vermont regardless of the electric utility."
CVPS, the state's largest electric utility, has 370 net metering solar customers who are paid 14 cents per kilowatt hour.
The statewide solar mandate that took effect in June requires a utility to buy power from a solar customer at the utility's going electric rate, plus a premium, that together totals 20 cents per kilowatt hour.
CVPS spokesman Steve Costello said the company has filed a rate request with the Public Service Board to offer the additional 6-cent premium. Costello said while GMP has focused on a solar program, CVPS has put its efforts into Cow Power, a renewable energy program that turns manure on family farms into methane to generate electricity.
