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In Utilities Versus Private Generators, Electricity Credits May Lose Power

Ouachita Electric Cooperative Corporation's 76-acre, 12 megawatt solar farm in East Camden
OECC
Ouachita Electric Cooperative Corporation's 76-acre, 12 megawatt solar farm in East Camden

For interested onlookers like Arkansas Energy Office program manager Chet Howland, the filing today by the Net Metering Working Group is a not-unexpected, slight disappointment.

The group is the creation of the Public Service Commission (at the request of the General Assembly) to examine net metering: the practice of pushing the electricity generated by windmills or solar power systems back onto the grid, and getting credit for it from energy utilities.

The group was formed to make recommendations to the three-member commission on what changes to make to the net-metering rate structure going forward, and it was manned with interested parties representing traditional electrical utility companies and new renewable energy interests such as the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association, Inc., and solar array installers.

Unfortunately, those two sides didn't budge, and the filing today has two recommendations.

Chet Howland
Credit ARKANSAS ENERGY OFFICE
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ARKANSAS ENERGY OFFICE
Chet Howland

Traditional electrical utilities such as Entergy, SWEPCo and the electric cooperatives have been complaining that solar powered customers like Pat Costner in Carroll County, but increasingly, much bigger ones like L’Oreal in North Little Rock, even whole municipalities, are building solar arrays and pushing electricity onto the grid and getting credits for it without chipping in for the cost of the grid.

"You know, I think you were always going to have two polar opposite opinions here," says Howland, whose Arkansas Energy Office was not a party in the working group, "and it was always going to be the role of the commission to strike this balance between two opinions that were going to be irreconcilable."

The alternative energy folks who basically want to leave net metering alone became Sub-Group 1, and they want the Commission to study the matter more. The traditional utilities become Sub-Group 2, and they want new net-metering customers to get a smaller credit for the energy they export.

John Bethel is the head of the Arkansas Public Service Commission and the chairman of the Net Metering Working Group set to deliver its recommendations in September on changes in rates for electricity to solar power-generating customers in the state.
Credit Bobby Ampezzan / ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
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ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA
John Bethel

"Obviously, the groups didn't come to a significant level of agreement," said John Bethel, staff director of the commission.

Incidentally, the staff of the Commission itself, along with the Attorney General’s office, support the big energy utilities — Sub-Group 2.

"I would very much expect that we will see some prudent balance of the two," Howland said, "that will, ideally, not satisfy everyone, but not cut anyone off at the knees."

A hearing before the Public Service Commission is scheduled for Nov. 30. Before then, both groups will have opportunity to rejoin the other group's premise or recommendations. Meanwhile, Arkansans may make comments on APSC Docket No. 16-027-R here

This story is produced by Arkansas Public Media. What's that? APM is a nonprofit journalism project for all of Arkansas and a collaboration among public media in the state. We're funded in part through a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with the support of partner stations KUAR,  KUAF,  KASU and KTXK. And, we hope, from you! You can learn more and support Arkansas Public Media's reporting at  arkansaspublicmedia.org . Arkansas Public Media is Natural State news with context.

Copyright 2020 Arkansas Public Media. To see more, visit Arkansas Public Media.

Bobby Ampezzan is a native of Detroit who holds degrees from Dickinson College (Carlisle, PA) and the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville). He's written for The Guardian newspaper and Oxford American magazine and was a longtime staff writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. The best dimestore nugget he's lately discovered comes from James Altucher's Choose Yourself (actually, the Times' profile on Altucher, which quotes the book): "I lose at least 20 percent of my intelligence when I am resentful." Meanwhile, his faith in public radio and television stems from the unifying philosophy that not everything be serious, but curiosity should follow every thing, and that we be serious about curiosity.