For the homeowners, businesses, industries, local and tribal governments that have invested in their own solar systems, the return from the utilities on the electricity they put into the grid may be better compensated in the future. The Public Service Commission of WI is considering ammending chapter PSC 119 that was written in 2004. It governs interconnection of individual distributed generation systems with the distribution systems of electric public utilities, but doesn’t provide a framework to calculate rates uniformly.
The PSC is requring Wisconsin’s five largest investor-owned utilities to model their costs based on specific factors that the PSC will examine to determine compensation for independent power producers. They will look at the net metering rate for customers with small renewable energy systems (less than 20 kW) too. Currently, each utility across the state pays a different amount for the energy customers contribute to the grid after they have used what they need first. THis can range from 2-10 cents/ kWh. When customers are paid a good rate for their energy, the economics of installing solar is more favorable. WSJ