SANTA CLARA — Some solar power users in Santa Clara soon may receive a refund.

During a Santa Clara City Council work meeting last Wednesday at Santa Clara Town Hall, the director of Santa Clara Power said a “mistake” in the documentation of the solar power policy created in 2016 caused the city to overcharge some residences for power.

During the same meeting, the city’s public works director said the city will be trying to tap one of its last remaining possible wells to see if it could be an additional source of water for the city. 

Santa Clara Power Director Gary Hall told the council that customers with solar power systems were not credited for providing more electricity to the city than they took in than they were supposed to.

As part of the 2016 policy created over several months, the city charges residential customers with solar systems an additional “solar reliability charge” designed to help maintain the city’s power grid. Customers who generated more electricity than they got from the city were supposed to be credited 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, but Hall said that hasn’t happened.

“All the customers who have produced more energy than purchased from us, we will have to be issuing them credits,” Hall told the council Wednesday. “They were charged a solar reliability charge. We will be refunding these customers. I’m not sure how this happened.”

The council will decide at its next meeting this Wednesday, Jan. 11, whether to formally approve the refund as well as send a reminder to power customers about the net power metering agreement for solar customers. 

Hall said there are 58 residences with solar power systems in the city. According to records presented to the council by Hall, 54 customers would be receiving a combined total of $16,997.31 in refunds. The compensations range from $2,262.33 for one resident to $26.73. 

Council member Jarret Waite, who said he has a system at his own home, stands to receive $63.66. As a solar customer himself, Waite said during the meeting he sees both the need for a solar reliability charge and the argument against it. 

“A solar customer would argue I’m putting in the power plant. The counter-argument is that’s great but unless you have a massive battery, the city is your battery,” Waite said, adding the charge could potentially dissuade people from going solar. “Eye-opening for me is what we collect is $30,000 a year. The question is was that 30,000 worth the disincentive to create solar in the city? I sit on both sides of the fence, so it’s a tough call.”

The solar power agreement only applies to residential customers. Commercial customers – like the Harmons Grocery on Pioneer Parkway, which gets 40% of its power from solar – have separate agreements. And Waite said Harmons pays the city for any power they use outside their solar-power system.  

As Waite eluded to, the city’s power director said while Santa Clara doesn’t see many cloudy days, solar panels are mostly useless on cloudy days and solar customers turn at that point to the city’s power grid and should play a role in helping maintain it. 

“Solar is a double-edged sword,” Hall said. “ It’s great. it helps us out, but we still have to get resources from power plants and other resources to bring power on cloudy days and there’s no solar being produced.”

Digging for water

Santa Clara Public Works director Dustin Mouritsen said the city still has water rights for one more well. 

He would like the council’s authorization for $7,000 to pay for a search for it. 

Mouritsen said he wants the funds authorized for Spanish Fork-based Willowstick Technologies to search for the right place for a high-yield water well. The main search area will be in The Heights near the lava beds, as Mouritsen said the quality of water near the Santa Clara River is low, and a well in Snow Canyon would require a costly pipeline. 

Mouritsen said a major advantage of the well is it would be owned and operated by the city, rather than the Washington County Water Conservancy, meaning Santa Clara could decide for itself what to do with that water. 

“These are our rights,” Mouritsen said. “The conservancy would have no part of it.”

Mouritsen said Willowstick Technologies recently performed a similar study for Cedar City, finding eight possible sites of which test drilling has started on two wells there.

Like the solar power issue, the council will decide whether to authorize the funding for the study at this Wednesday’s meeting. 

Mayor Rick Rosenberg said the well will be vital for non-peak months but said the city still uses regional water during the summer. 

“In the peak months like July, August and September, we would still be on regional water. But it still wasn’t much. We used 11 percent (last) year,” Rosenberg said. “This would reduce our dependency on the water district and it would add redundancy for periods when we’re doing maintenance on other wells.”

Update Jan. 17, 5 p.m. Paragraph clarified to say Waite said solar panels are mostly useless on cloudy days.

 

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