The Massive Storm Facing Californian Utilities

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1. The massive storm is facing California ratepayers, not the utilities.

"While the regulatory process is expected to allow for recovery of lost revenues in future rate cases, tariff structures in most states call for non-DER (Distributed Energy Resources) customers to pay for (or absorb) lost revenues. As DER penetration increases, this is a cost-recovery structure that will lead to political pressure to undo these cross subsidies and may result in utility stranded cost exposure.

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As a result, the future cost and availability of capital for the electric utility industry would be adversely impacted. This would lead to increasing customer rate pressures."

There's a very anti-utility segment among solar supporters, which amounts to shooting themselves in the feet. The utilities maintain the infrastructure and balance the load, which are essential. DER contributors are going to have to start paying those costs - which is probably long overdue.