Campaign to fix Transmission Access Charges (TAC) gains support
The charges are currently being misapplied to distributed generation facilities that serve local load and never use the transmission system.
The Clean Coalition’s campaign to remedy an unfair charge on local renewable energy in California is garnering support from a broad range oforganizations, as well asmedia attention.
Transmission Access Charges (TAC) are fees designed to pay for the state’s transmission grid and are applied to every kilowatt-hour of metered customer electric usage. While TAC make sense for energy delivered through the transmission system, they are currently being misapplied to distributed generation facilities that serve local load and never actually utilize transmission. This misapplication creates a major market distortion and disincentivizes growth of local clean energy.
On September 24, the Clean Coalitionfiled initial commentson the TAC issue with the California Energy Commission. Then, in November, we hosted aneducational webinarto raise interest in the issue andfiled commentsdirectly with the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Our comments were submitted with signatures of support from a few dozen individuals, advocacy groups, and other organizations who agree that action must be taken to spur further growth in local renewables.
Our growing list of supporters have all signed on to help fix the CAISO’s tariff languageto assess TAC on a utility’s transmission load. These organizations will help raise awareness of the benefits local renewable energy will receive from fixing the language.
Use of local energy should not continue to subsidize transmission infrastructure when these resources are actually reducing the need for future investments into the transmission system.
Individuals and organizations interested in supporting the TAC campaign should contact Josh Valentine atjosh@clean-coalition.org.
