By Sam Silerio
El Paso resident Jon Muir installed rooftop solar on his home in 2022. He was shocked to see his electric bill this month come in nearly four times higher than he expected at $117. A new fee on his bill made the difference.
“For years, I’ve been used to seeing $30 electric bills during the winter and spring because my solar panels offset most of my energy use,” Muir said. “What makes this even more frustrating is that I already invested in rooftop solar and changed my lifestyle around energy efficiency. I’m producing clean energy and charging my electric vehicle overnight during off-peak hours, but I’m being punished for reducing what I need from the grid.”
On Sept. 1, HB 912 takes effect as Texas law and it explicitly requires that El Paso Electric conduct a “comprehensive cost-benefit analysis” of rooftop solar energy before the utility changes the fees or the compensation rate for its rooftop solar customers.
El Paso Electric, a for-profit monopoly electric utility owned by a fund managed by JP Morgan Investment Management Inc., has still not done the cost-benefit analysis; yet it’s proactively discriminating against rooftop solar customers with new fees that other customers don’t pay.
On top of that, the utility compensates solar customers less than 2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the electricity that we share with the grid, but it resells that same energy to our neighbors for El Paso Electric’s full retail rate, about 15 cents.
HB 912 passed as Texas law because it’s necessary to corroborate the fees that El Paso Electric’s monopoly charges our community. It’s even more important to establish proper compensation rates for when an individual produces energy and exports it back to the grid. Establishing fair compensation for “distributed energy,” such as rooftop solar, home batteries, smart thermostats and EVs, is critical for El Paso’s economy and its future.
Our (the people’s) own distributed energy resources reduce the need for El Paso Electric to turn on expensive power plants to meet demand spikes, or build additional transmission infrastructure. This saves millions and benefits all El Pasoans.
The truth is that installing rooftop solar becomes more affordable and accessible for folks when it is compensated fairly. Low compensation and additional charges limit solar’s financial return. This discourages families from going solar and locks them into buying all of their electricity from El Paso Electric.
El Paso Electric rushed to punish rooftop solar customers again with a rude awakening on these May electric bills, despite not having done the cost-benefit analysis to show their work. The utility has replaced their already infamous $30.25 monthly fee with an even more aggressive, unjustified, and variable “demand charge.”
In lieu of the fixed, monthly fee, now solar customers will face uncertainty as the demand charge will look to identify each customer’s peak power draw on the grid every month.
Managing peak demand is a sophisticated task, involving scheduling and staggering appliance usage, that is typically only expected of larger commercial customers with complex facilities and energy managers on staff. Demand charges for residential customers are rare across the country. Ours is a clear indication that El Paso Electric has taken its gloves off to fight against rooftop solar.
The worst part about all of this is that this new demand charge will apply to all solar owners who installed their systems after Dec. 18, 2017. We will all be grandfathered into this new fee structure and likely have to pay more to El Paso Electric every month.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas approved this demand charge in February as part of El Paso Electric’s latest rate case to raise everyone’s prices. However, because El Paso Electric filed that rate case in January 2025 (before HB 912 passed), the utility’s solar demand charge is deftly circumventing our new Texas law.
City of El Paso leaders must demand that El Paso Electric immediately commission this cost-benefit analysis. Although El Paso Electric is not beholden to the demands of our community, the public pressure should motivate El Paso Electric to comply if they care about their relationship with their host city.
A cost-benefit analysis will expand El Paso’s energy economy to individuals. It will protect El Pasoans and establish fair compensation for the private property, the commodity, that solar owners give to the grid.
This study must be done by a neutral third party agreed to by stakeholders. The study should be comprehensive and be done in accordance with established best practices. It should be a public process and provide stakeholders with the opportunity to provide comments during the study, and again before it’s submitted to the PUC.
The sun shines for all of us; stop punishing El Paso for embracing it.
Sam Silerio is the Texas Program Director for the non-profit Solar United Neighbors, an Army veteran, UTEP alumnus and Texas-licensed attorney.
The post Opinion: El Paso Electric is flouting Texas law to gouge solar customers appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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