The Idaho Public Utilities Commission denied a request from Idaho Power to lower the amount the utility pays residential solar power generators for their excess power – and, more importantly, grandfathers existing residential solar customers into their current net metering program no matter what further action Idaho Power may want to take on residential solar.
I’ll be interested to see what the commission decides on a similar request from Rocky Mountain Power, which I’ve written about before.
I don’t know how similar the situations are, particularly on whether Rocky Mountain adequately notified existing net metering customers. The utility commission faulted Idaho Power for not giving net metering customers adequate notice that the changes would adversely impact them. I’d have to look to see what advance notice Idaho Power gave their customers and compare it to what we got from Rocky Mountain. We might be on shakier ground there, because as I recall Rocky Mountain gave us a lot of information.
The grandfathering, however, is what gives me the most hope in this situation. That bodes well for us in Rocky Mountain Power territory, regardless of whether we were adequately notified or not. This grandfathering puts about 4,000 customers on the list. That’s a lot – probably more than what Rocky Mountain has in its Idaho service area.
Here’s to hoping the IPUC treats Rocky Mountain Power’s net-metering customers in the same manner.
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