The Duck Curve#municipal utility
Colorado Springs votes 7-2 for grid access or demand charges on new solar
The Colorado Springs City Council adopted Resolution 81-26 on September 22, 2026 by a 7-2 vote: from April 1, 2027, Colorado Springs Utilities' new residential and small commercial net metering customers choose time-of-day rates plus a $1.00-per-day Grid Access Charge with no rollover, or a summer $0.3608 / winter $0.2462 per kW per day demand charge on the highest 15-minute on-peak net load with rollover kept. Utilities puts the average residential net metering bill about $38 a month above the approved 2027 frozen rates either way; earlier agreements keep frozen rates until April 1, 2032.
Ann Arbor's city utility installs solar and batteries at no upfront cost
The Ann Arbor Sustainable Energy Utility, a voter-created municipal utility that supplements rather than replaces DTE, is installing city-owned rooftop solar and battery systems on homes in the Bryant neighborhood at no upfront cost, with plans to reach about 100 homes before the pilot concludes in 2026 and to begin citywide expansion in 2027. Participants pay roughly $600 a year and the city estimates $700 to $1,000 in annual utility-bill savings; one enrolled household rode out a two-day heat-wave outage in July 2026 on its battery.
