By Sam Silerio
El Paso’s monopoly, for-profit electric company is telling us that our prices are going up again. You might’ve heard about El Paso Electric’s ongoing “rate case” to raise our prices.
A rate case is the regulatory process where El Paso Electric, which operates as a monopoly utility, must get approval from the Public Utility Commission of Texas for any changes to what they charge customers. What EPE is asking for would cause the average El Pasoan’s bill to increase by $25 per month; EPE’s authorized profit margin to increase from 9.35% to 10.7%; and a new, aggressive fee for people that install rooftop solar panels.
People are upset. While EPE is required by the PUC to file a rate case every four years, it’s clear they’re using the opportunity to push for higher profits and the burden falls on our bills.
Over 24,000 property owners in El Paso have installed rooftop solar panels to produce our own energy and save money. Akin to how some real property owners leverage their mineral rights or water rights as a source of income, the right to produce and sell energy at a fair market value is a very real “surface” right of property ownership.
And since EPE does not allow us to interconnect our homes with our neighbors and sell energy to each other, they (the monopoly) should have to compensate us at a fair market value for the energy produced by our property.
EPE is moving fast to keep that 24,000 number as low as possible. EPE’s $30 minimum monthly charge for solar customers is the highest among regulated Texas utilities. Other utilities offer incentives over $2,000 for installing solar panels. So how much is rooftop solar actually worth to the grid?
A 2024 study, “Value of residential solar in Texas,” found that rooftop solar benefits the Texas grid with avoided generation costs, transmission costs, and distribution costs to the tune of about 15 cents per kilowatt hour. Sadly, EPE only compensates solar customers 2 cents per kilowatt hour (or less) for our excess power. What gives?
EPE claims that rooftop solar is not valuable to them. Instead of taking their word for it, the PUC should conduct its own comprehensive “value of solar” study and establish a statewide compensation standard for rooftop solar among the regulated utilities. This should be done before allowing EPE to further discourage solar adoption with additional fees.
EPE often says that they don’t want to subsidize rooftop solar for the wealthy. They rely on the debunked cost shift myth to say that those who can afford to install solar panels lower their electric bills and consequently shift the cost of grid maintenance to everyone else without solar.
The truth is, rooftop solar is competing with their outdated business model and threatening their profit. The building of the future can produce, store and share its own energy, so how is the electric company of the future going to adapt?
Competition normally encourages innovation. In our case however, EPE wields its monopoly power to stifle both the competition and the innovation. This means El Paso families and businesses are stuck with fewer options and higher costs, all to maintain utility corporation shareholder profits.
EPE’s profit was $163.1 million in 2023, and that was a 44% increase from 2022. Nice.
We should be able to choose technologies like rooftop solar to put power back in the hands of consumers and reduce dependency on outdated systems. The future will show us that property rights include surface energy production rights too, and EPE is wrong to tread on ours this way.
Sam Silerio is the Texas program director for Solar United Neighbors and an Army veteran, UTEP alumnus and Texas-licensed attorney.
The post Opinion: El Paso Electric’s rate case is bad for property rights appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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