Vectren has filed a plan to cap compensation to customer-owned electricity generation and to implement a new rate reflecting what it calls “the actual market cost of electricity.”
In a release, Vectren says the change will benefit “99 percent of customers who do not own their own generation by reducing the cost all customers must pay to subsidize private renewable generation. “
But Evansville-based Morton Solar has sent a letter of “objection and testimony” saying the net metering rate requested by the utility is much too low and doesn’t represent the true value of solar energy from many different aspects.
The solar firm says it’s requesting an “unbiased study and analysis” of the proposed rates.
Vectren says the net metering cap – which is the maximum amount of distributed generation on Vectren’s system that’s credited at the full retail price for energy -- accounts for 1.5% of Vectren’s retail peak load.
The company, now owned by Texas-based CenterPoint, says customers with systems that were installed by the end of 2017 will continue to be credited at the full retail price for excess power put on the grid until 2047.
Customers with systems installed after 2017 will be credited at the full retail price for excess power put back on the grid until 2032.