Uptown Messenger (https://uptownmessenger.com/tag/cynthia-hedge-morrell/)
The idea of increasing the tax applied to electric bills in New Orleans resurfaced Monday during the first city council hearing on next year’s budget, suggested as a possible route to lessen the amount that property taxes will have to be raised to pay for expanded city services next year.
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A New Orleans City Council committee rejected a proposal to generate significant amounts of electricity from solar panels on the roofs of Tulane University dorms, saying in a Tuesday morning meeting that the city first needs a better overall system for regulating new, independent sources of energy. Current regulations allow two different levels of power generation from solar panels: 25 kilowatts from residential customers, and 300 kilowatts from commercial structures, said Matthew Fraser, legislative director for District A Councilmember Susan Guidry. If each room in Tulane’s dorms were to be classified as an independent residential unit for the purposes of solar power generation, that would far exceed the current limits, and a new designation would be needed. Under a concept known as net metering, independent generators of electrical power like Tulane can sell their excess electricity back to Entergy. Entergy has told the city that this process still incurs transmission costs to the utility, however, and if Tulane was generating its own energy, the new transmission costs could get passed on to customers around the city.
