Washington City Power - Net Metering

Summary

Washington City adopted a net metering program, including interconnection procedures, in January 2008, and updated the policy in December 2014.* Net metering is available to any customer of Washington City Electric that generates electricity using solar, wind, or other City-approved renewable energy resources. Systems up to 10 kW in capacity are allowed to connect to the City distribution system. 

At the customer's expense, the municipal utility will provide a single, bidirectional meter to measure the in-flow and out-flow of electricity at the customer's home. Systems are restricted to being sized to provide no more than 120% of the historic maximum monthly energy consumption of the customer. Customers receive credit at the wholesale rate (4 cents per kWh) for any net excess generation (NEG) at the end of a billing period. The utility takes ownership of all renewable energy credits (RECs) and other renewable attributes associated with customer generation. 

Net-metered systems must comply with the IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 technical standards, where applicable, and must be certified by the utility. The customer must install a manual disconnect switch. Washington City will inspect installations prior to interconnection. Washington City also maintains the right to inspect a customer's system anytime after the initial approval during reasonable hours and with reasonable prior notice. If the city finds the system to be in non-compliance, the city may require the system to be disconnected until compliance is achieved. 

Washington City has also set an aggregate capacity limit of 500 kW of renewable resources allowed to connect to the City distribution system. The City will not take further applications for connection once this cap is reached.  




* Utah enacted legislation in 2002 requiring all investor-owned electric utilities and cooperative utilities to offer net metering to their customers. However, the law does not apply to municipal utilities. Washington City offers net metering voluntarily.