Recent and ongoing regulatory proceedings on net metering highlight the role of state Public Utility Commissions (PUCs) in setting the terms of advanced energy growth in the United States.
Net metering — which is offered in over 40 states — requires utilities to credit households and businesses that install small distributed generation systems (such as solar, wind, biogas, fuel cells, small hydro, combined heat and power, and others) for the surplus electricity that they generate. Despite variation in policy design between states, net metering is credited with accelerating the deployment of distributed generation (DG), particularly residential solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. While the incentive level and certain policy design elements (such as caps on total net-metered capacity within a state or utility service territory) are usually set by statute, other key components are determined by PUCs in regulatory proceedings, typically involving extensive stakeholder comment.