20230209ComplaintLetter.pdf

To the Review Board,
My complaint is against Gino Endo County Electrical inspector & Idaho Power,
The complaint is that the State/county inspection to verify the Solar Array System in the time frame
given by Idaho Power, was not accomplished in that period. The State/County electrical inspector
couldn’t complete and accomplish the inspection of the solar array addition that was installed in June of
2019. Final inspection was to be done and paperwork turned into Idaho Power by 12/20/2020. Final
inspections was accomplished on 12/29/20 by the County inspector for the state and all paperwork was
submitted to Idaho Power on 12/30/20. This made our paperwork late, excluding it for grandfathered
status.
Why did this happen? 2020 was the time given to have Grandfather status of Solar array systems to be
established according to the Public Utility Commission and the outcome of case IPC-E-18-15. This
created a scramble for people to install and have their systems verified. To compound this, covid was
just presenting itself, presenting many uncertainties on what could and couldn’t be worked on
throughout the entire year of 2020 and later. The request for an inspection was initially made in
April/May of 2020. The inspector requested to move the inspection date to October/November due to
the abnormally large work load at that time. We agreed, since we had until 12/20/20. When the
October/November time came, the inspector wasn’t feeling well and postponed our inspection until
December. He wasn’t able to make it to our site until December 29th, 2020. This pushed our paperwork
past the 12/20/20 deadline. Idaho power will not recognize the grandfather status even though they
had proof that the system was installed and paid for prior to 2020, meeting the requirement for
grandfather status. The only missing piece was the state inspection of the system and having Idaho
Power finish their end. Idaho power is bound by the letter of the statutes and since they do not have
any discretionary power in these situations, they pushed our addition to the non-grandfathered status.
We lost our grandfather status because of situations that are beyond our control, the state inspector
was overworked at the time and hampered by covid restrictions and sickness. Idaho codes allow for
extensions in events of such as those that were observed in 2020-21 (see SECTION 63-113, IDAHO
CODE). Even though this section is for tax purposes, it addresses the fact that extensions can be given
under strenuous times. The state inspection was late, yet we are the ones having to pay for this
situation with more fees, work and costs to join the new array as Idaho Power requires.
What would we like done. The Public Utility Commission has the power to right wrongs or give
extensions. Even though everyone did their best at the time, in good faith, yet we as home owners have
been wronged. Informal petitioning has had no effect. Everyone follows the letter of the law so they
are seen as impartial. In this formal complaint we ask the deciding committee to grant our request to
have the array in question given grandfather status. Allow Idaho Power to finish their end of the
connection process giving our whole system the proper green light and the grandfather status it should
have.
Respectfully submitted
Thain Cashmore

RECEIVED
2023 February 9, 8:03PM
IDAHO PUBLIC
UTILITIES COMMISSION
CASE NO. IPC-E-23-06