Ferrer noted that the Puerto Rico House and Senate passed a joint resolution last November expressing “the wholehearted rejection” of a proposed Restructuring Support Agreement (RSA) that includes the solar tax.

The RSA is a proposal to settle with the owners of $9 billion in face value of bonds issued by the Puerto Rico utility PREPA. The RSA would add a “transition charge” on PREPA customers’ bills of at least 2.8¢/kWh, rising through 2044 to 4.6¢/kWh, “gravely impacting” all electricity consumers, Ferrer said.

Ferrer highlighted the RSA’s provision that consumers who produce any of their own electricity from a new PV system would be required to pay the new charge not only on power purchased from the grid, but also on their own self-generated power. PV systems that were installed by September 2020 would be exempted, but could lose the exemption under certain conditions.