This REPORT:

Freeing the Grid, report no. 02-07, November 2007

is an excellent resource for understanding the net-metering changes happening accross the country.

Here is an excerpt:

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“Since the 2006 edition of Freeing the Grid, there have been great strides in bringing more clean energy to the grid. Many states have taken the lead with reforming their clean energy policies and goals. But we are still far from conquering the “Energy Trilemma”—a world of energy strained by the three forces: financial stress, environmental constraints and security risks.

As a former rate-regulator, I know it is a tough situation when a utility comes to say, “We need to increase rates to cover new investments in transmission and distribution.” So, when we have a chance to recruit and encourage folks who will install their own small, clean generation that serves its own load, the message is: “Many hands make lighter work; welcome to the task that we all face!”

In this 2007 edition, the Network for New Energy Choices teamed up with the Solar Alliance, the Vote Solar Initiative, and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council to bring the most up-to-date analysis of statewide interconnection standards and net-metering rules. These groups, in the forefront of the field, bring with them more than twenty-five years in institutional experience to draw on best policies and practices.

What are some of the key lessons of this edition?

••• States are taking up the challenge of meeting our national needs; Colorado and Pennsylvania have joined New Jersey in the top ranks of net-metering rules.

••• Interconnection standards and good net-metering policies are vital parts of a larger effort to supplement our current centralized, fossil-fired, electric grid with clean, secure, and cost-effective energy resources. States that have poor net-metering rules and interconnection standards are essentially telling the clean energy industry—with its great potential for job creation—that they are, “Closed for Business”.

••• States can take on the best practices, detailed within, to ensure success in fulfilling clean energy goals.

••• Last, but certainly not least, to encourage, not discourage, small, clean, distributed investments that can help on all three fronts of our energy trilemma—finance, environment, and security.

As we think back on the past year, it is important to remember that each state still needs the tools offered here. So my message, to the legislatures and commissions, is: “Let’s put these tools and lessons to work now.”

By Michael Dworkin
Professor of law and director of the Institute for Energy and the
Environment at Vermont Law School, has also been a litigator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, a management partner in an engineering firm, and a utility regulator. Professor Dworkin was chair of the Vermont Public Service Board from 1999 to 2005, and he chaired the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ (NARUC)
Committee on Energy Resources & the Environment. Michael is now a non-utility trustee of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and was elected to the board of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE).
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