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This is actually pretty surprising from SRP, they have traditionally been pretty pro-solar in their thinking. They have supported both solar Elec (PV) and solar Hot Water with some fairly aggressive rebate programs.
Must be something going on - this is fairly strange behavior from a 'municipal' utility vs. an IOU (Investor Owned Utility). Generally speaking, the Muni's tend to view their customers as their constituents - they 'serve' their customer base with the customer's goals as their goals. Contrast that with the IOU's whose goals are to serve their shareholders and return the maximum profits possible.
The entire utility marketplace is viewing solar the same way that the telecom's industry viewed cellular - left to grow and flourish cellular eventually wiped out the 'wires' companies. The utilities are concerned that increased solar penetration will obsolete their monopolies....and they are fighting back. This is one indication of that.
The absurdity is that most solar penetration rates hover below 5% of total connected load in most utility service territories, Hawaii being the exception.
The utilities are even MORE concerned with the coming 'battery back up' market - and have yet to realize that there are very real benefits to having controllable generation in the circuit areas of their distribution network.
Interesting times -
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