The program, known as net metering, rewards owners of solar panels by allowing them to sell surplus electricity back into the grid and get credit on their electric bills, which offsets the cost of the panels.
New Hampshire households use about 4,000 megawatts on a hot summer day, but only 50 megawatts have been allowed into the net metering program for the past 10 years.
The state hit that limit a month ago, as solar took off in 2015, and has been struggling with the issue ever since. Lawmakers first drafted a bill, HB1116, raising the limit to 75 megawatts to give regulators time to figure out a long-term solution.
Solar industry lobbyists argued that the new limit of 75 megawatts would be quickly exhausted, and force them to lay off workers. State representatives apparently took heed, and on Feb. 17 the House Science Technology and Energy Committee voted 19-0 to amend HB1116 to allow up to 100 megawatts under existing rules.
The increase to 100 megawatts was proposed by Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, and Wilton State Rep. Frank Edelblut, R-Wilton, a candidate for governor. Gov. Maggie Hassan supports the increase, as does Eversource, the state’s largest utility.
Even though the new 100-megawatt limit still needs to pass the full House, the Senate and clear the governor’s desk, it looks like a sure thing.
Many of the states with net metering laws have no limit on how many megawatts can be accommodated, and that’s where solar advocates would like to see New Hampshire go.
The key issue is how much to pay solar panel owners for the electricity they sell back into the grid. They are currently paid the full, retail rate. Residential customers in the Eversource net metering program, for example, have been getting 16.5 cents per kilowatt hour for electricity “exported.”
Utilities have argued that net metered customers should only be paid the wholesale energy supply price, which is a fraction of the full retail rate and varies hourly according to market conditions. Somewhere between those two extremes is a net metering rate that the PUC will determine is fair to both solar and non-solar customers.
“I think if they come up with a good rate, a cap is not necessary. There is a realization that there are 700 to 800 New Hampshire jobs associated with residential solar installations,” said Bradley. “That’s an important factor. People are using it.”
Arizona lost an estimated 2,248 solar industry jobs in 2015, about a 25-percent reduction from 2014, according to a report from the Solar Foundation. Nevada regulators, under pressure from utilities, made changes to net metering that increased the fees paid by solar panel owners and cut the price paid for their electricity from about 11 cents a kwh to less than 3 cents.
Bradley said the challenge in New Hampshire will be to develop a rate that continues to encourage solar, while reducing or eliminating cost-shifting to other electricity customers.
“We have to consider people who will never be able to afford to put a solar array on their roof,” he said.
Kate Epsen, executive director of the New Hampshire Sustainable Energy Association, hopes 10 to 12 months of hearings before the PUC will settle the matter.
She couldn’t say for sure that expanding net metering to 100 megawatts will be sufficient to meet demand over the next year, but she was happy with the process.
“It was good to see that the legislators really listened to the public testimony, which was almost unanimous that net metering is really valuable to our economy,” she said.
Eversource supports the new limit and is also looking forward to the PUC hearings, said company spokesman Martin Murray.
“The investigation by state regulators is vital,” he said. “The current program provides, in effect, a subsidy paid by other customers. We expect the investigation to include a focus on whether or not that subsidy is actually necessary and whether or not it is harmful to other customers.”
©2016 The New Hampshire Union Leader (Manchester, N.H.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
