One of the advantages of setting up a solar panel system at your business or home is something known as “net metering.”
Simply stated, it allows a customer to be paid for excess solar-powered electricity that is fed back into the grid.
Net metering sounds like a no-brainer, but as we found out in Sussex County, change is difficult.
While getting paid for excess electricity is essential, there’s the issue of maintaining reliable connections from homes and businesses to the grid.
This is especially true for Greenwood-based Delaware Electric Cooperative, which is seeing explosive population growth in portions of its territory.
As the number of solar users increased, utilities saw the need for relief in the form of a bill that passed the General Assembly and became law immediately.
The co-op did the right thing and reported its policy change. It turned out that some members love to squirrel away net metering credits.
A couple of hundred questioned the change, according to a Cape Gazette story Some claimed the policy would allow the utility to fetch prices for contributed solar power at rates above the net metering figure. A few even claimed they are already turning over their solar power at a bargain price.
State Sen. Stephanie Hansen, D-Middletown, a sponsor of the bill, stated in an email message that the measure was needed for a number of reasons that included overall fairness and the costs of maintaining the grid.
Incentives for solar have been criticized as aiding the affluent who can afford to shell out as much as $40,000. That kind of spending triggers tax credits as well as the benefits of net metering. It differs from the widely advertised “rent your roof” option, with the solar provider pocketing most of the incentives and the customer seeing a small reduction in electric bills.
The new legislation now limits banking of net metering credits to a year.
It did not help that the cooperative’s board has approved recent rate increases driven by inflation as well as soaring energy prices (natural gas for power plants) that are running well above the current rate of inflation. Despite the hikes, the co-op’s rates are among the lowest in the region.
Delaware Electric did come up with a compromise that delays the phase-out of net metering credits.
Hansen said in an email message the bill was the product of a one-year effort by a working group that included utilities, public policy groups and others dealing with issues such as fairness to all customers and members. The group also looked at developments in other states and lessons learned.
The question that remains is whether those affected should have been getting updates on what was taking place before getting a July surprise.- Doug Rainey, chief content officer.
