Idaho Power has filed a new application with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to significantly decrease the compensation rooftop solar owners receive for the excess electricity they send to the grid. Known as Export Credit Rates (ECRs), these payments are the financial backbone of home solar investments. Under the proposed changes, ECRs could drop by more than 60% — making solar far less viable just as utility rates continue to rise.
Idaho Power’s latest proposal to the Public Utilities Commission would drop compensation for solar exports from 6.18¢/kWh — a rate that only took effect in January 2024 — to an average of 2.46¢/kWh annually. That’s a 72% reduction from the previous standard rate of 8.8¢/kWh, which had been in place for over a decade.
If approved, these new rates would take effect June 1, right as Idaho enters peak solar season. From October through May, Idaho Power wants to pay solar owners less than 1¢/kWh — an 80% decrease — even as it charges customers at least 8¢/kWh for the very same electricity.
This is all part of the utility’s new “Net Billing” program, which the PUC approved in December 2023. The program allows ECRs to be recalculated every year, leaving prospective solar customers in the dark about their return on investment. That financial uncertainty is a major barrier to adoption.
Idaho Power is basing its calculations on its own internal 2022 “Value of Distributed Energy Resources Study.” The Idaho Conservation League (ICL) and other organizations hired an independent expert to review this study and found that Idaho Power is significantly undervaluing rooftop solar by cherry-picking data and using flawed methodologies.
As Idaho Power tries to pay solar owners less, it’s also increasing fixed charges on all customers. As of January 2025, Idahoans will pay a $15 monthly flat fee — triple what it was just a few years ago. These fixed fees disproportionately harm lower-income households and remove incentives to save energy.
Right now, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission is accepting public comments on this proposal (reference case #IPC-E-25-15). The Commission is expected to make a decision by May.
News item from the Idaho Conservation League
Idaho Power is yet again grievously stealing money from their customers who have paid thousands upon thousands of dollars (for many, their life savings) to install rooftop solar panels on their homes. All of these customers believed that along with helping to become personally more energy independent, and to help contribute to Idaho’s power grid, they also, importantly, believed that they would eventually see a fair monetary return on their investment.
However, Idaho Power has once again petitioned the PUC to DRASTICALLY reduce the compensation rate to homeowners for the power they send to the electrical grid. This is in addition to raising the “connection” rate from $5.00 to $15.00 a month for all customers – a 150% increase – and they already reduced the rate of compensation to homeowners contributing power to the grid just one year ago!
If this extreme rate compensation decrease is allowed to pass by the PUC, homeowners will never realize their solar panels’ full “return on investment” because of the way Idaho Power has “structured” – read that “gamed” – the system in their corporation’s favor, regardless of the thousands of Idahoans they hurt in the process.
Please also note in your story that Idaho Power is requesting NO open hearing on this issue. Perhaps they calculated that this level of deception and theft is best conducted in the dark. In this case, Idaho Power knows that what they are proposing in this PUC application are egregious and unethical actions which will negatively impact over 13,000 Idaho citizens. Those with nothing to hide – hide nothing. Please help bring this issue to light.
I I put in a 20,000 W system to cover my house. I now pay $500 payment to solar panels and 300 back to the power company because of what they did if this other goes through you might as well not even put solar in we need to get a group together and sue them for not paying us for our power. This is wrong. It’s not ethical and we need to do something to get it back to where we are at least breaking even they’re making money on the power I put out my house only uses a third if that is what I produce.
This means the owners of solar panels need to bank their excess energy – battery bank, before using power from grid or giving power back. They charge more for the energy they sell you and pay less for the energy they buy and sell to others. It should be closer to an even split, especially for what you push during the day and use at night.