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Originally published on February 11, 2021 3:55 pm
Ameren Illinois and environmental groups are fighting over what is fair pay for solar power generators.
The case is before the Illinois Commerce Commission.
Ameren is proposing a new rebate plan for solar power generators contributing to the grid. Under Illinois law, the utility has had to pay generators the same as it charges customers as an incentive to create more solar capacity. The process is known as full retail net metering.
Nikhil Vijaykar, a staff attorney with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, said Ameren s proposal would hinder the state s transition to clean energy.
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California’s long-awaited proceeding on distributed solar compensation may offer important answers to new questions about the costs of renewables that will come with the Biden energy transition.
Net energy metering (NEM) compensates distributed solar owners for generation exported to the power system at the retail electricity rate. At low solar penetrations, that may not impose significant costs to other customers. But utilities and solar advocates differ on the cost-benefit balance at the higher penetrations now forecast by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and others. To get past the controversy, stakeholders across the U.S. are working toward a successor to NEM.