Net Settlement Hangs in the Balance in New Hampshire – pv magazine USA

August 21, 2024 Anna Fischer

While the PUC will ultimately make the decision on net billing, a group of interested parties, including state utilities and the Granite State Hydropower Association, reached a settlement that would keep the same rate in place for two years.

The settlement also calls for utilities to file NEM time-of-use rates two years after approval of what it calls NEM 2.1. In response to claims that NEM shifts costs to non-net-metered solar payers, the settlement calls for utilities to impose application fees on net-metered projects to reduce administrative costs for non-net-metered customers. The suggested fees range from $200 to $1,000 per project.

The state’s leading clean energy advocacy group, Clean Energy NH, sent out a rallying cry in support of the settlement. Executive Director Sam Evans-Brown told pv magazine USA that he hopes commissioners won’t lower the current compensation rate, but said “we’ve seen on this commission that they’re hostile to certain types of utility programs. That was most evident in their 2020 energy efficiency ordinance, which was unanimously repealed on a bipartisan basis by New Hampshire lawmakers.”

Much evidence was submitted in Case 22-060, but Evans-Brown has previously stated that the order in the previous case was not based on any evidence introduced in the case, so Clean Energy NH is concerned that history could repeat itself.

The history of net metering in New Hampshire dates back to 1998, when NEM, a policy that provides utility ratepayers with a credit for the amount of solar power sent to the grid, was first enacted in New Hampshire. At the time, it supported both solar and small hydro generation and provided net metering credits at a retail rate of 17 cents per kWh.

In 2017, New Hampshire’s NEM rate was reduced to approximately 14.7 cents per kWh for small (<100 kW) systems and to 10 cents per kWh for large projects, compared to 13–25 cents per kWh in Maine and about 16 cents per kWh in Vermont.

Source: Clean Energy NH

While the net rate in NH was low, the cost of electricity is high. New Hampshire currently has 8^t the highest electricity rate in the country, averaging 23.1 cents per kWh.

In addition, while solar would ease this cost burden for many ratepayers, the state is not known as a solar powerhouse. The state currently gets 1.94% of its electricity from the sun, compared to neighboring Massachusetts, which gets 23.75% of its electricity from the sun. NH and ranks 41st^saint in the country according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. This position is expected to fall to 45^t over the next five years.

If the NH PUC decides to limit or eliminate net billing in New Hampshire, it could impact the state’s solar sector. pv usa magazine I spoke with Dan Weeks, vice president of ReVision Energy, the largest solar panel installer in New Hampshire. Weeks said net metering was “a critical foundation for thousands of families, as well as homeless people, nonprofits, businesses, and cities, to transition to solar and recapture at least some of the value they deliver to the grid in the form of net metering credits.”

Weeks noted that currently, NH net settlement is good until 2040, or for 15 years. Because 20 years is the “minimum acceptable investment period for projects,” he said ReVision hopes the PUC will leave net settlement intact and extend the period.

“We think it’s a very modest task,” Weeks said. “And the fact that all the regulated utilities, as well as consumer advocates, as well as industry and environmentalists, are in agreement should make it easier for the PUC commissioners to make a decision. But we’re also reading signals that they could go in a very drastic direction, and that’s very concerning.”

California’s current solar dilemma is an example of what could happen to New Hampshire’s solar market. An updated net metering rule, implemented in April 2023, called NEM 3.0, cut compensation for exported rooftop solar generation by about 80%. Since then, interconnection queues have shown an 80% drop in installation requests. The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) reported that nearly 17,000 rooftop solar jobs have been lost this year as a result, about 22% of the workforce. Solar Insure, which supports many installers in the state, said pv usa magazine that its data shows that 75% of solar installers are now in the “high risk” category following the CPUC’s decision to implement NEM 3.0, with the most high-profile bankruptcy among the many being SunPower.

Comments on the potential rate change can be submitted via email to [email protected]. Clean Energy NH recommends that comments be submitted by August 30, 2024.