A major clean energy milestone has at last landed in Utah: On March 4, the Utah Public Service Commission approved the Community Clean Energy Program filed by Rocky Mountain Power and the Community Renewable Energy Agency in Docket 25-035-06. The decision marks a key milestone that allows this important program, originally authorized by HB 411 in 2019, to move forward. You can see a detailed write-up of the program from the Utah Renewable Energy Communities website here.
Utah Clean Energy is proud to share our strong support for this exciting clean energy initiative. The Community Clean Energy Program gives residents and businesses within the 19-member communities the option to chart their own clean energy path. Participating communities will be able to develop new renewable energy and storage resources with the goal of powering each community with net-100% renewable energy.
Opportunity to Build New Clean Energy Resources at Scale
The Community Clean Energy Program is unique in that the 19 communities are working with their existing electric utility to acquire new clean energy resources. Together, these communities represent about 25% of Rocky Mountain Power’s total Utah electricity generation, so the program could deliver hundreds if not thousands of new megawatts of clean electricity to the Rocky Mountain Power grid. Under the enabling statute, eligible energy resources include solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric power, energy efficiency and customer-side resources, energy storage, nuclear energy, and projects with carbon capture and sequestration technologies. We would add that this is much more likely to bring significant new local clean energy projects online than Rocky Mountain Power’s existing Blue Sky and Subscriber Solar Programs. For example, the Blue Sky program uses customer funds for purchasing renewable energy credits (“RECs”) and offers grants to small renewable energy programs, but it does not directly bring online new large-scale clean energy resources. That is the unique opportunity with this new program.
New Rate Option for Participating Customer (“Schedule 100”)
The Public Service Commission’s order creates a new utility rate for Rocky Mountain Power customers, “Schedule 100”, to support the implementation of the Community Clean Energy Program and build new renewable energy, energy storage, and demand-side resources. Under Schedule 100, participating residential customers will initially pay a fixed charge of $4 per month. Non-residential customers will pay a charge of $0.00609 per kWh, and a surcharge of 12 cents each month to fully cover the cost for low-income customers. Some details about the Community Clean Energy Program still need to be resolved, including the exact valuation of new renewable energy resources. We are keeping a close eye on these details.
Community Adoption Process through June 2
Now the clock is ticking for local engagement. The 19 participating communities have until June 2 to adopt an ordinance to officially confirm participation in the Community Clean Energy Program. After the ordinances are adopted, residents and businesses will receive notices regarding their pending participation in the program and can then choose to opt out of the program at no charge for a period of about 6 months, and at any time thereafter for an exit fee. We note that communities have already selected a short list of projects that are ready to move forward quickly once the adoption and opt-out phase is completed later this year.
The Community Renewable Energy Program marks a significant and exciting step toward community-driven clean energy adoption! The opportunity is now firmly in local hands. If you would like more information about how you can get involved and reach out to your city council members about this opportunity, see this page, organized by some of our grassroots partners. (see a graphic of the estimated timeline from the Community Renewable Energy Agency below)
URC Communities Timeline
You can read more about the program from the Community Renewable Energy Agency website here: https://www.utahrenewablecommunities.org/post/approval.
We would like to clarify that Utah Clean Energy is not a solar company. We are a nonprofit organization that advocates for solar and other clean energy technologies, but we do not install or sell solar in any way.