Much like the fishing, hunting and wilderness that inspires us to live and invest in Alaska, net metering embraces a core value common to us all: the idea that we can live a simple and self sufficient lifestyle by making use of that which nature provides to us. If you are a homeowner or business owner facing increasing energy costs, you have probably thought about tapping into your solar, wind or hydro resources. Many of the renewable resources in Alaska are located on private land and cost effective technologies are now available to harness them…
Understanding this GREAT potential for individual investment in renewable energies, states across the country began to consider the benefits of Net Metering. On the National Level, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 required state regulatory bodies to consider adopting a number of policies designed to reduce electric consumption and/or promote renewable forms of power production as an alternative to fossil fuels. One such policy is known was net metering.
42 states already have a net metering rule. In these states, ratepayers have generally supported a net metering rule while electric utilities have usually opposed it. The ratepayers’ ability to sell their renewable power to the utilities at “retail,” i.e., for the same price as the utility charges the ratepayer for power, is typically the main source of the utilities’ objection and this held true in Alaska as well.
The Energy Policy Act contained a sample and very generic net metering rule for state regulators to choose to adopt. As required, the Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) opened a rulemaking docket in 2006 to consider adopting this net metering policy for the state. Many individuals and groups participated in this rulemaking, which included several RCA meetings, numerous written filings by the parties and one full-day workshop to explore the various issues in considerable detail. Public support for net metering was overwhelming, with over one hundred comments submitted and dozens of people testifying in support of the rule at different junctures. There was no opposition except for that from the utilities. After the workshop, the net metering advocates developed and jointly submitted a recommended rule for the RCA to adopt. The utility companies recommended that RCA reject net metering in Alaska.
In August 2008, the RCA declined to adopt the federal rule but stated it intent to open a new rulemaking docket to establish a more specific rule for Alaska. It opened this new docket in October 2008 and has proposed a discussion draft net metering rule for consideration at another workshop tentatively proposed for January 2009. The discussion draft reflects much, but not all, of what the net metering advocates had proposed. We attribute the RCA’s willingness to embrace net metering almost entirely to the show of public support that Commissioners witnessed throughout the docket, and some Commissioners noted that this docket had generated more public interest than any other they’d seen.
Click Here to Check the Current Status Of Net Metering.