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Small-scale solar power, also known as rooftop or distributed solar, has grown considerably in the U.S. over the past decade. It provides electricity without emitting air pollutants or climate-warming greenhouse gases, and it meets local energy demand without requiring costly investments in transmission and distribution systems.
However, its expansion is making it harder for electric utilities and power grid managers to design fair and efficient retail electricity rates – the prices that households pay.
Under traditional electricity pricing, customers pay one charge per kilowatt-hour of electricity consumption that covers both the energy they use and the fixed costs of maintaining the grid. As more people adopt rooftop solar, they buy less energy from the grid. Fewer customers are left to shoulder utilities’ fixed costs, potentially making power more expensive for everyone.
This trend can drive more customers to leave the system and raise prices further – a scenario known as the utility death spiral. One 2018 study calculated that two-thirds of recent electricity distribution cost increases at California’s three investor-owned utilities were associated with the growth of residential solar.
With abundant sun and solar-friendly policies, California has 36% of U.S. small-scale solar capacity, much more than any other state. And the state is engaged in a heated debate over pricing electricity in ways designed to make energy less expensive for low-income households.
We study energy markets and public policy affecting energy and the environment, and have analyzed various retail electricity rate structures and their economic impacts on power producers and consumers. Our key finding is that an income-based, fixed-charge rate structure of the type that California is currently considering offers the most efficient and equitable solution – if it is designed correctly.
Two-part power bills
The debate over fixed charges began in 2022, when the California Legislature enacted an energy bill that ordered state regulators to study income-based fixed charges and decide whether to adopt them by July 1, 2024. Then the state’s three largest utilities – Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric – submitted a proposal to the state Public Utilities Commission in mid-2023 that would separate retail bills into two parts: a fixed charge and a variable charge.
The fixed charge would be a preset monthly fee, independent of energy usage but tied to income levels, so wealthier customers would pay a larger share of grid maintenance costs. The variable charge would be based on the amount of electricity consumed and would cover the actual costs of electricity production and delivery.
Historically, these actual costs have typically ranged between 4 to 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Today, the average residential rate in California often exceeds 30 cents per kilowatt-hour because it covers fixed costs as well as electricity use.
Who benefits?
A two-part billing system that separates fixed costs from variable usage charges offers potential benefits for both consumers and utilities.
For utilities, the fixed charge offers a stable revenue stream. The companies know how many households they serve, and they can plan on the fixed amounts that those households will pay each month. Households that go solar would still pay the fixed charge, since most of them draw electricity from the grid when the sun doesn’t shine.
This approach provides financial stability for the utility and access to the grid for all. Consumers would benefit because with a certain amount of income guaranteed, utilities could charge significantly less per kilowatt-hour for the actual electricity that households use.
One significant concern is that if electricity costs less, people may use more of it, which could undermine efforts toward energy conservation and lead to an increase in emissions. In our view, the way to address this risk is by fine-tuning the two-part billing structure so that it covers only a portion of the utilities’ costs through fixed charges and incorporates the rest into the variable usage rates.
Put another way, combining a lower fixed charge with a higher variable charge would ensure that utilities can still cover their fixed costs effectively, while encouraging mindful energy use among consumers. Ensuring affordable electricity for consumers, fair cost recovery for utilities and overall fairness and efficiency in the energy market requires striking a delicate balance.
Another argument from critics, often labeled “energy socialism,” asserts that higher-income households might end up subsidizing excessive electricity use by lower-income households under the income-based rate structure. In our view, this perception is inaccurate.
Wealthy households would pay more to maintain the grid, via larger fixed charges, than poorer households, but would not subsidize lower-income households’ energy use. All income groups would pay the same rate for each additional kilowatt-hour of electricity that they use. Decisions on energy use would remain economically driven, regardless of consumers’ income level.
Fixed fees are too big
While our research supports California utilities’ approach in principle, we believe their proposal has shortcomings – notably in the proposed income brackets.
As currently framed, households with annual incomes between US$28,000 and $69,000 would pay a fixed fee of $20 to $34 per month. Households earning between $69,000 and $180,000 would pay $51 to $73 per month, and those earning more than $180,000 would pay $85 to $128.
The middle-income bracket starts just above California’s median household income. Consequently, nearly half of all California households could find themselves paying a substantial monthly fee – $51 to $73 – regardless of their actual electricity usage.
It could be hard to convince consumers to pay significant fixed fees for intangible services, especially middle-income residents who have either gone solar or may do so. Not surprisingly, the proposal has encountered considerable pushback from the solar industry.
Finding the sweet spot
In response to public outcry, California lawmakers recently introduced Assembly Bill 1999, which would replace the income-graduated fixed-charge requirement with fixed charges of $5 per month for low-income customers and up to $10 per month for others. In our view, this reaction goes too far in the other direction.
Capping fixed charges at such low levels would force utilities to hike their energy use rates to cover fixed costs – again, risking the death spiral scenario. Our research indicates that there is a range for the fixed charge that would cover a reasonable share of utilities’ fixed costs, but is not high enough to burden consumers.
Without utility cost data, we can’t pinpoint this range precisely. However, based on estimates of utilities’ costs, we believe the caps proposed in AB 1999 are too low and could end up unfairly burdening those the bill aims to protect.
In our research, based on a hypothetical case study, we found a sweet spot in which fixed charges cover about 40% of utilities’ fixed costs. Charges at this level provide maximum benefit to consumers, although they reduce energy producers’ profits.
Our findings are similar to an alternative proposal jointly presented by The Utility Reform Network, a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group. This plan suggests a two-part rate structure with an average fixed charge of about $36 per month. Low-income households would pay $5 per month, and those earning over $150,000 yearly would pay about $62.
We believe this proposal moves in the right direction by ensuring fair contributions to grid costs, while also encouraging efficient energy use and investment in clean energy infrastructure. It could act as a guide for other U.S. states searching for methods to balance utility fixed-cost recovery with fair pricing and continued growth of small-scale solar power.
Yihsu Chen, Professor of Technology Management in Sustainability, University of California, Santa Cruz and Andrew L. Liu, Associate Professor of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Clearlake Animal Control website lists 51 adoptable dogs.
This week’s dogs include “Layla,” a female American Staffordshire terrier mix with a black and white coat.
Also up for adoptin is “Chandler,” a 6-month-old male American pit bull terrier mix with a white and fawn coat.
The shelter is located at 6820 Old Highway 53. It’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
For more information, call the shelter at 707-762-6227, email
This week’s adoptable dogs are featured below.
Email Elizabeth Larson at
The patients, whose average age in the study was 80, had lost their social networks as their failing memories made conversation difficult, and their family and friends grew uncomfortable.
Caregivers, whose average age was 67 and included spouses, adult children and others, became isolated as their responsibilities mounted. They also grieved the loss of their relationships with the patients when those relationships were good.
“Unmet social needs negatively impact quality of life, and that can lead to health outcomes like depression and cardiovascular disease, as well as high health-care use and early death,” said Ashwin Kotwal, MD, assistant professor of medicine in the UCSF Division of Geriatrics, and first author of the study.
“We know from previous research that older adults with higher levels of social isolation have more than double the odds of nursing home placement,” said Kotwal, who is also affiliated with the San Francisco VA Health Medical Center.
The study, which appears in The Gerontologist on March 18, 2024, included information from two dozen mainly male patients with dementia, and four dozen mainly female caregivers, some of whom were recently bereaved.
“Participating in support groups, in which patients and their caregivers can meet separately, may be low-stress places to socialize and get advice,” said Krista Harrison, PhD, of the UCSF Division of Geriatrics, Global Brain Health initiative and Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, the study’s senior author, noting that screenings take minutes and can be done by doctors, social workers or therapists.
“Clinicians should discuss options like community choirs that have been tailored for patients with dementia and their caregivers,” she said. “Prior research shows that meaningful activities can be enjoyed as the disease progresses. There may be simple ways of adapting activities, like switching attendance from a place of worship to participating in a service by Zoom with a small gathering at home.”
The interviews were conducted for two earlier studies: Dementia Palliative Care, led by Harrison, which examined patients with mild-to-moderate dementia and their caregivers; and Music and Dementia Caregiving, led by co-author Theresa Allison, MD, PhD, which looked at patients with any stage of dementia and their live-in caregivers, including those who had the assistance of professional caregivers.
Good relationships have the most to lose
A recent UCSF-led study of married couples, in which one partner had dementia, offered a fresh twist to the current study. The researchers found partners of people with dementia who were highly satisfied with their relationships experienced more loneliness than they had previously.
But those in poor-quality relationships were not impacted by their partner’s dementia, despite having higher rates of depression and loneliness overall.
“People who are really invested in their marriage or partnership have more to lose when one partner develops dementia,” said Kotwal, the study’s senior author. “But those with lower marital quality have already lost the emotional support from the marriage that can be protective against loneliness and depression.”
Co-Authors: Theresa A. Allison, MD, PhD; Madina Halim, BA; Sarah B. Garrett, PhD; Carla M. Perissinotto; and Alexander K. Smith, MD, MPH, all of UCSF, and Christine S. Ritchie, MD, MSPH, of Harvard Medical School.
Suzanne Leigh writes for the University of California, San Francisco.
LAKEPORT, Calif. — A Lakeport man has been taken into custody following a four-hour standoff with police who were responding to a domestic violence case.
Patrick James Davies, 35, was arrested Wednesday night, the Lakeport Police Department reported.
At 4:30 p.m. Wednesday Lakeport Police officers were dispatched to a residence in the 900 block of 11th Street to investigate the report of a disturbance, police said.
After arriving at the residence, officers located an adult female subject who had visible injuries and determined that she had been the victim of domestic violence.
Police said the woman was safely removed from the residence by officers and taken to the hospital by the agency’s Lake Family Resource Center crisis responder.
Officers also located an adult male at the scene and identified him as Davies, police said.
The officers attempted to detain Davies at the door, but he resisted and assaulted two officers, causing minor injuries to both, before fleeing into the house. Police said officers deployed a taser during the contact, but it was not effective.
Six additional officers responded and began negotiating with Davies to surrender. To protect the safety of the officers and community, police said the westbound lane of 11th Street between Mellor Drive and Safeway was closed, and traffic controls were put in place by Lakeport Public Works.
Additionally, the Lakeport Fire Protection District was called and sent a fire engine and ambulance to the scene to standby. Lake County Behavioral Health licensed clinical social workers also responded to assist police with negotiations.
At approximately 8:42 p.m. Wednesday, Davies peacefully surrendered to Lakeport Police officers and was taken into custody.
He was arrested and transported to the Lake County Correctional Facility and booked for felony domestic violence, felony resisting with violence, felony terrorist threats, committing a felony while on bail for a previous felony, felony assault on a peace officer and resisting arrest.
Davies was previously arrested by Lakeport Police on March 4 for felony domestic violence, felony false imprisonment, felony battery with injuries and felony assault with a deadly weapon. He was released on bail for those charges, police said.
Due to the repeated crimes and violence, officers sought a bail enhancement from a Lake County Superior Court judge. The bail on this current arrest was set at $500,000.
Jail records show Davies is set to be arraigned in Lake County Superior Court on Friday.
Traffic controls on 11th Street were removed at approximately 9 p.m. Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the elections office said it still had 5,095 ballots left to process, reduced by about 2,300 ballots since its last report.
The ballots still to be processed include 4,705 vote-by-mail or absentee ballots, 266 provisional or condition ballots, and 124 vote-by-mail ballots that require further review for various reasons, the elections office reported.
Until the 28-day canvass is completed in early April, the elections office said the primary results will not be considered final and official.
Effective this year, AB 63 requires that the elections office update vote results and unprocessed ballot counts at least once per week and post the updated information on its website.
However, the elections office may stop posting results if the only ballots left to count are the ballots for which voters have the opportunity to either verify their signature or provide a signature, or until they certify election results.
For more information, visit the Lake County Registrar of Voters website or call 707-263-2372 OR toll-free at 888-235-6730.
CLEARLAKE, Calif. — The Clearlake Police Department is attempting to locate a missing 12-year-old boy.
Finnegan Fields was last seen in Lucerne.
He is described as a white male, 4 feet 5 inches tall, weighing 92 pounds, with light brown hair and hazel eyes.
Police said Finnegan was last seen wearing a burgundy shirt and gray sweats with white shoes with blue soles.
If you have any information regarding his whereabouts please contact the Clearlake Police Department at 707-994-8251, Extension 1 for dispatch.