PUCO to get input on home-based energy systems
Ohio utility regulators will hold a highly unusual hearing on Jan. 10, allowing at least seven companies or groups to make brief pitches about how the state should regulate home-based renewableenergy systems such as rooftop solar.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio announced the hearing this week, saying that five-member panel would benefit from hearing the various sides and being able to ask questions in a case that has been active for five years.
This follows a November ruling from the PUCO that updated the rules related to certain small renewableenergy systems, a set of policy issues often called net metering. Environmental advocates and renewable-energy businesses had strong objections to a provision that reduces the amount of credit a resident can receive for any excess energy that a home-based system sells back into the grid.
The groups have asked the commission to reconsider its ruling, and the upcoming hearing will be part of the panel’s process of determining what to do next.
“Net-metering customers should be fairly compensated for their excess generation,” the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel said in a filing. “Further, the PUCO should explain its reversal of its previous position supporting a net-metering customer capacity credit.”
At the same time, utility companies such as FirstEnergy had concerns that the ruling would allow home-based systems that are larger than is reasonable for a household or business. The commission has said that the systems can be built to provide for up to 120 percent of the customer’s needs at the time of construction.
“The rule should not allow for a net metering system to be designed to meet more than 100 percent of the customer’s electricity requirements,” FirstEnergy said in a filing.
The last time the PUCO held this type of hearing was in 2014 for an American Electric Power request for profit guarantees for certain power plants.
What is unusual is that the commissioners will all be present and asking questions, much like an appellate court. This is in contrast to a typical PUCO hearing, which is presided over by an administrative-law judge, much like a trial court.
The following companies or groups will have the opportunity to make presentations of five minutes each: American Electric Power, Dayton Power & Light and FirstEnergy, all of which are regulated utility companies; IGS Energy an unregulated energy supplier based in Dublin; One Energy, a developer of wind-energy projects based in Findlay; and the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel.
In addition, a coalition of environmental groups will have 10 minutes that it can allocate among its members.
The participants in the case, which is number 12-2050, have much at stake. Small solar and wind systems provide an opportunity for residents and businesses to reduce their dependence on utility companies, and they are a rapidly growing market for manufacturers and installers of the systems.
Meanwhile, utility companies say the proliferation of small energy systems makes the power grid less stable and has the effect of shifting some costs onto customers who cannot afford to install the systems.