In an unexpected and historic turn of events, the Commissioners of the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) today voted 4 to 1 to adopt a statewide Net Metering tariff regulation at a public meeting in Anchorage. The regulation will next receive a legal review by the Alaska Department of Law, and then be sent to the Lieutenant Governor for signature. The regulation is expected to become active within 90 to 120 days and will effectively permit net metered connections on the Railbelt utilities and a handful of others across the state that exceed 5 million kilowatt hours of annual sales.

At this public meeting, the RCA Commissioners were presented by RCA staff members James Keen and Rich Gazaway with a compromise strawman proposal that limits individual customer system size to 25 kilowatts, allows credit for excess power at the retail rate with monthly billing, and limits the total capacity of net metered systems to 1.5% of the utilities average retail demand. Commissioners Pickett, Giard, Lisankie and Wilson voted in favor of the proposal, and Commissioner Price dissented with concerns that cost shifting from Net Metered customers may be passed on to other customers. A strong case was made by Net Metering advocates during earlier public hearings and comments on the docket that utilities in more than 42 other states have adopted net metering with negligible effects to their bottom line economics.

The public meeting began with supportive statements by Net Metering advocates including Pat Lavin from the National Wildlife Federation, Mark Masteller of the US Green Building Council and engineering consultant Andy Baker of YourCleanEnergy. There was also telephone testimony from advocates in Kodiak and Juneau, and the meeting was monitored telephonically by the staff of Representative Paul Seaton in Homer who has been a long time and consistent supporter of similar state legislation. Since the first docket on Net Metering was opened by the RCA nearly two years ago, the interest and support from advocates has grown organically to a lobby that proved effective in removing objections made by the Railbelt and other utilities during the public workshops and reviews. In the end, the utilities and advocates agreed to the compromise strawman proposal crafted by RCA staff that was adopted today.
by Andy Baker, P.E.,
YourCleanEnergy LLC
907-274-2007

Hello Net Metering Fans,

After several years of hard work the statewide Net Metering policy is going to come down to a vote this Wednesday, October 14.   In a public meeting, an RCA employee will present the latest strawman proposal and the comments received during the last comment period.  The commissioners will discuss, without public participation, the docket and then decide to:

1)Adopt as presented.

or
2)Not adopt a net metering regulation.
or
3)Adopt with revisions based on last round of comments from advocates and
utilities.
or
4)Open a new public comment period for a revised policy.

Having net metering advocates at this meeting will continue to show our support for a statewide Net Metering Policy (net metering docket R-09-1) to the commissioners.

Please Join Us at the RCA Conference Room (701 West Eighth Avenue, Suite 300, Anchorage) at 9 AM this Wednesday, October 14 or you can call the RCA Wednesday morning at (907) 276-6222 (in Anchorage) or  (1-800) 390-2782 (outside Anchorage, within Alaska) and ask to be directed to the public meeting.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Comments NEEDED by YOU!

On Friday, June 12, 2009,  the RCA issued proposed net metering regulations for AK!    Public comments are due before July 13, 2009. SUBMIT COMMENTS ON-LINE TODAY!

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE INFOMATION

Hello Net Metering Fans!

As you will recall, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska culminated last year’s net metering rulemaking proceeding with a decision to not adopt federal net metering language and, instead, open a new rulemaking docket to craft an “Alaska-specific” net metering rule.

The RCA has proposed content for such a rule  that largely reflects what net metering proponents sought last year, and has scheduled a workshop to discuss the proposal for March 4.  This is the time to show your support for this rule!  There will be an opportunity for folks to participate in the full-day workshop to get into all the details.

We will set up a teleconference before the workshop to talk about the proposed rule and how we can best present a strong, unified public voice in favor of net metering – this would be geared for people who would like to make a comment at the beginning of the workshop and/or submit a written comment.  If you would like to participate in that, please contact Margaret Adsit at the Alaska Center for the Environment margaret@akcentero.org.  Margaret will find a time that works for the most people.

If you are potentially interested in participating in the full-day workshop, please let both me and Margaret know.  We will arrange a separate call to get more into the details and the kinds of issues to expect at the workshop.

Thanks once again for your participation in this issue.  It is SOLELY due to public participation and support that we now have a good proposed rule – let’s make sure we get it over the finish line!