State Net Metering Policies

State Net Metering Policies

The following table lists the state programs that include Net Metering provisions. States that are not listed in this table do not offer Net Metering. In those States without Net Metering two meters are required and excess production will be credited to the customer at an "avoided cost" rate that will be much lower than the retail cost of electricity.

Prepared by: Yih-Huei Wan, NREL (Revised 10/8/99)

State	Allowable Technology and Size	Allowable Customer	Statewide Limit	Treatment of Net Excess Generation (NEG)	Authority	Enacted	Scope of Program	Citation/Reference
Arizona	Qualifying facilities [1] £ 100 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Arizona Corporation Commission	1981	All IOUs and RECs	PUC Order Decision 52345, Docket 81-045
California	Solar & wind £ 10 kW	Residential & small commercial	0.1% 1996 peak	Annual NEG granted to utilities	Legislature	1998	All utilities in state	Public Utilities Codes Sec. 2827 (effective 9-98)
Colorado	Qualifying facilities £ 10 kW	Comm & residential customers, Public Service of Colorado (PSCo) only	First 200 customers	Annual NEG purchased at PSCo energy payment rate	Utility tariff	1998	Public Service of Colorado Company	Colorado P.U.C. No. 7 – Electric tariff Schedules RPV and CPV
Connecticut	Renewables £ 100 kW Cogenerators £ 50 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Public Utility Commission	1998	All IOUs, No REC in state.	CPUCA No. 159
Delaware	Renewables £ 25 kW	All customer classes	None	To be specified by Delaware Public Service Commission	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	Senate Amendment No. 1 to HB 10
Idaho	All technologies £ 100 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Public Utility Commission	1980	IOUs only, RECs are not rate-regulated	Idaho PUC Order #16025 and #26750 (1997) Tariff sheets 86-1 thru 86-7
Indiana	Qualifying facilities £ 1,000 kWh/month	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG granted to utilities	Public Utility Commission	1985	IOUs only, RECs are not rate-regulated	Indiana Administrative Code 4-4.1-7
Iowa	Renewables (no limit per system)	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Iowa Utility Board	1993	IOUs only, RECs are not rate-regulated[2]	Iowa Administrative Code [199] Chapter 15.11(5)
Maine	Renewables & fuel cells£ 100 kW	All customer classes	None	Annual NEG granted to utilities	Public Utility Commission	1998	All utilities in state	MPUC Rules & Regulations Chapter 313
Maryland	Solar only £ 80 kW	Residential only	0.2% of 1998 peak	Monthly NEG granted to utilities	Legislature	1997	All utilities in state	Article 78, Section 54M
Massachusetts	Qualifying facilities £ 60 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Legislature	1997	All utilities in state	Mass. Gen. L. ch. 164, §1G(g); Dept. of Tel. & Energy 97-111
Minnesota	Qualifying facilities £ 40 kW	All customer classes	None	NEG purchased at utility average retail energy rate	Legislature	1983	All utilities in state	Minn. Stat. §216B.164
Montana	Solar, wind & hydro £ 50 kW	All customer classes	None	Annual NEG granted to utilities at the end of each calendar year	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	SB 409
Nevada	Solar & Wind £ 10 kW	All customer classes	First 100 customers for each utility	Monthly or annual NEG granted to utilities	Legislature	1997	All utilities in state	Nevada Revised Statute Ch. 704
New Hampshire	Solar, wind and hydro £ 25 kW	All customers classes	0.05% of utility's annual peak	NEG credited to next month	Legislature	1998	All utilities in state	RSA 362-A:9 (HB 485)
New Jersey	Photovoltaic & wind (no limit per system)	Residential & small commercial	0.1% of peak or $2,000,000 annual financial impact	Annual NEG purchased at avoided cost	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	AB 16. Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act
New Mexico	Renewables & cogeneration £ 10 kW	All customer classes	None	NEG carried forward from month to month or purchased at utility’s energy rate	Public Utility Commission	1999	All utilities in state	NMPUC Rule 571, 17 NMAC 10.571
New York	Solar only £ 10 kW	Residential only	0.1% 1996 peak demand	Annual NEG purchased at avoided cost	Legislature	1997	All utilities in state	Laws of New York, 1997 Chapter 399
North Dakota	Renewables & cogeneration £ 100 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Public Utility Commission	1991	IOUs only, RECs are not rate-regulated	North Dakota Admin. Code §69-09-07-09
Ohio	Solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, hydropower, micro–turbine, fuel cell	All customer class	1% of aggregate customer demand	Monthly NEG appears as credit in the next billing cycle	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	S.B. 3
Oklahoma	Renewables & cogeneration £ 100 kW and £ 25,000 kWh/year	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG granted to utilities	Oklahoma Corporation Commission	1988	All IOUs and RECs	OCC Order 326195
Oregon	Solar, wind, fuel cell, & microhydro £ 25 kW	All customer classes	0.5% of peak demand	Annual NEG granted to utilities	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	HB3219
Pennsylvania	Renewables & fuel cells (limit varies by utilities)	Varies by utilities	None	Varies by utilities	Public Utility Commission	Various	Various IOUs	PA PUC various utility tariffs
Rhode Island	Renewables & fuel cells £ 25 kW	All customer classes	1 MW for Narragansett Electric Company	Annual NEG granted to utilities	Public Utility Commission	1998	Narragansett Electric Company	PUC Order Docket No. 2710
Texas	Renewables only £ 50 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at avoided cost	Public Utility Commission	1986	All IOUs and RECs	PUC of Texas, Substantive Rules, §23.66(f)(4)
Vermont	PV, wind, fuel cells £15 kW Farm system £100 kW	All customer classes	1% of 1996 peak	Annual NEG granted to utilities	Legislature	1998	All utilities in state	Sec. 2. 30 V.S.A. §219a
Virginia	Solar, wind & hydro Residential £10 kW Non-residential£25 kW	All customer classes	0.1% of peak of previous year	Annual NEG granted to utilities (power purchase agreement is allowed)	Legislature	1999	All utilities in state	Virginia Assembly S1269 Approved by both Assembly and Senate 3/15/99
Washington	Solar, wind and hydropower £ 25 kW	All customer classes	0.1% of 1996 peak demand	Annual NEG granted to utilities at the end of each calendar year	Legislature	1998	All utilities in state	Title 80 RCW House Bill B2773
Wisconsin	All technologies £ 20 kW	All customer classes	None	Monthly NEG purchased at retail rate for renewables, avoided cost for non-renewables	Public Service Commission	1993	IOUs only, RECs are not rate-regulated	PSCW Order 6690-UR-107

Notes: IOU – Investor-owned utility

G&T – Generation and transmission cooperatives

REC – Rural electric cooperative

[1] Qualifying facilities generally mean a small cogenerator or a renewable energy production facility.

[2] Except for the Linn County Electric Cooperative, which is rate-regulated by Iowa PUC.

The original format for this table is taken from: Thomas J. Starrs (September 1996). Net Metering: New Opportunities for Home Power.

Renewable Energy Policy Project, Issue Brief, No. 2. College Park, MD: University of Maryland

Allowable Customer

Statewide Limit

Enacted

Program

Citation/Reference