SEIA's Tom Kimbis Talks Consumer Protections at the Federal Trade Commission's Workshop
“The solar industry is at the forefront of consumer protection for many reasons.” Truer words have never been spoken, and that was the message that Tim Kimbis, acting president of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) delivered to solar industry observers, electric utility groups, and state and federal government officials at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop, entitled Something New Under the Sun: Competition & Consumer Protection Issues in Solar Energy.
Tom has led SEIA’s proactive work to deliver quality consumer protection to America’s solar customers. And as solar energy jumps from 1 million installations to 2 million in just two years, weeding out bad actors and taking care of our customers becomes all the more important. The combination of proactive consumer protections, such as SEIA’s standard contracts, disclosure forms and a code of ethics, and existing regulations will ensure that customers are protected and those who break the law are held accountable.
A further excerpt from Tom’s remarks:
“We rely on consumers having great experiences. That means making sure that they understand solar, can compare offers, and can see their problems resolved. Our customers have some of the most carefully considered and advanced consumer protections in the country. And when they make that well-informed decision to go solar, we wind up with happy customers who are producing their own power, saving money, and helping drive the nation toward a clean and affordable energy future.”
This week, in advance of the workshop, SEIA released disclosure forms for leasing and power purchase agreements that our companies will be making available to their customers. The Better Business Bureau has endorsed our disclosure forms and will be using our consumer protection resources to work through any complaints they receive regarding solar transactions.
The day-long workshop involved representation from all sides of this issue. Tom and others in the workshop, including Jon Wellinghoff, chief policy officer at Solar City, strongly advocated for a compromise that would allow solar companies to compete fairly.
Wellinghoff offered the following four basic values: Consumers have a right to self-generate, interconnect and take service in a non-discriminatory manner; Distributed Energy provides benefits to all customers; rationale compromises can be achieved on DG compensation; and principles for grid neutrality must be adopted.
