‘Make money from CUC with net metering’

The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. could be buying your power, Assistant Attorney General Alan Barak said yesterday.

Barak, speaking to members of the Rotary Club at their weekly meeting, detailed a draft summary of regulations he has been working on for CUC on net metering and renewable energy sources.

A law was passed and amended to allow customers to produce and sell renewable energy to CUC. Renewable energy sources include wind turbines, ocean current turbines, solar energy and hydropower.

“These guys make money,” he said referring to a picture of wind turbines.

Under the draft regulations, customers would produce their own energy to use and the utility corporation will buy each kilowatt-hour of leftover energy for half of CUC’s kWh rate.

Barak said until an alternative to oil is used, CUC power rates would remain the same or increase.

The current CUC rates are driven by oil prices, he said. Even heavy fuel oil won’t provide a long-term solution. A different type of power plant is needed for HFO and it would only save customers about 6 cents.

“It can give you some relief at 6 cents, but it’s only temporarily,” he added.

“You can criticize CUC, you can say people are sleeping on the job,” he said. “You can ask how many CUC employees it takes to read your meter. You can complain that people don’t answer the phone. You can complain whatever you want. If you fired everybody from CUC, you would still pay in the upper 30 [cents] for power. If you’re a business, you would pay about 40 cents.”

Firing everyone from CUC would save customers about 8 cents, he said.

“Fuel’s what’s killing us,” he added.

That’s where renewable power comes in, he said. Business or residential customers can install renewable sources, offsetting the money they would be paying CUC. Any power left over can be bought by CUC for half of CUC’s rate.

For example, Barack said if a customer produces 2,000 kWhs but only uses 1,500 kWhs, he or she could sell the remaining 500 kWh to CUC for half of CUC’s rate.

For CUC’s current commercial rate of 42 cents per kWh, businesses could sell back the extra power for 21 cents per kWh.

“We’re happy to buy power from anyone selling at 20 cents,” he said.

Barak said the energy source could be installed in a backyard, on a roof or even someplace such as Wireless Ridge. The law allows CUC to provide extension cords for a few cents per kWh to transmit the energy to the utility company.