LANSING, Mich. — Solar energy advocates squared off against Michigan’s largest utilities this week when a legislative committee heard testimony on legislation requiring the state Public Service Commission to promulgate rules for community solar projects.
Executives for CMS Energy (NYSE:CMS) and DTE Energy (NYSE:DTE) said their companies support and are developing solar energy. But they told the Michigan House Energy Committee Wednesday they opposed HB 4715 and HB 4716 because the bills would increase costs to consumers and weaken consumer protections.
The bills’ supporters, who numbered in the dozens before the committee — though most did not testify — said the legislation is needed to ensure smaller projects are developed in rural and poorer areas the utilities might be less interested in developing.
Committee Chair Rep. Joe Bellino (R) has not indicated yet when and whether he will move forward on the bills. In comments during the hearing, Bellino seemed sympathetic to the bills’ idea and urged fellow committee members to tour a community solar project built by Lansing’s municipal utility, the Board of Water and Light.
Bellino, DTE and CMS have been criticized for holding up a separate bill that could expand rooftop solar in Michigan. Bellino’s campaigns have been supported by utility political PACs and individual executives. In the 2020 election, his campaign got $6,000 from the CMS Energy Corporate Employees PAC. Some 30 utility executives, including the then-presidents of both CMS and DTE, contributed from $250 to $1,000 to his campaign.
The two bills are a bipartisan package, with HB 4715 introduced by Rep. Rachel Hood (D) and HB 4716 by Rep. Michele Hoitenga (R).
Hood said the bill give residents a “real opportunity to save on energy bills,” and “equally important” it lets consumers choose the type of energy they use.
HB 4715 requires the PSC to write rules allowing for the creation and financing of community solar facilities and providing bill credits to subscribers. The bill also allows utilities to recover “reasonable interconnection costs” for projects and for handling a community solar subscription base.
HB 4716 creates a new section in Michigan utility law covering community solar facilities and requires a utility to provide bill credits for at least 25 years of the community solar project’s operation.
Two days before the committee meeting, CMS and DTE held a press conference to announce the “MI Community Solar Program,” which would provide subscriber credits to any customer who signs up for the projects run by the utilities. CMS has two in operation, one at Ferris State University and the other at Western Michigan University, with a third being developed in the northern city of Cadillac. DTE has several in metro Detroit. The utility is also developing a community solar project in Ann Arbor that was announced earlier this month.
Spokespersons at the press conference raised some of the issues, such as out-of-state developers coming into Michigan, they would repeat at the committee hearing. When asked about HB 4715 and HB 4716 at the press conference, Knox Cameron, a DTE manager of renewable energy, said, “We’re supportive of the growth of renewables” but that the utilities’ program is already deploying projects.
DTE Vice President for Renewables Chuck Conlen told the committee the bills were not needed and would “expose Michigan to the pitfalls of deregulated electric” suppliers. The utilities can produce power at lower cost, he said.
Sara Nielsen, CMS’ director of transportation, renewables and storage, said the bills “will effectively force the utilities to subsidize other projects at less defined prices.”
In all, she said, the bills will create a “less equitable, less affordable” system.
Also opposing the bills, but not speaking at the hearing, were the Michigan Manufacturers Association, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and the Utility Workers Union of America.
Ed Rivet, head of the Conservative Energy Forum, said the two bills help fill in gaps left by the utilities’ projects. What DTE and CMS are doing is needed, Rivet said, and they will create cheaper energy.
But the bills will assure that smaller areas can take advantage of solar energy too. The big utilities “won’t go into the small places where we need them,” Rivet said. “They won’t go into the niche places.
“This legislation empowers both big and small” projects, he added.
Among those supporting the legislation, but not speaking, were officials from the Michigan Catholic Conference, the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Michigan Municipal League, the Michigan Chemistry Council, the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs.