One of the last pieces of legislation to sneak its way through the Rhode Island General Assembly’s 2021 session was a bill allowing for an increase in net metering for the Block Island Utility District and Pascoag Utility District in Burrillville.
Formerly, under state law, net metering programs, whereby those with solar or wind-generating systems may be compensated, or credited for the amount of electricity they produce, were limited to three percent of the utility’s peak power usage. That limit was achieved a couple of yearsago on Block Island. The new legislation allows the utilities to set their own peaks.The passing of the legislation was only the first step. Now BIPCo must file a tariff with the RI Public Utilities Commission for a new policy. The BIUD Board of Governors has made the new tariff the subject of many recent meetings, quietly working out and compromising with solar installers and members of the general public in order to formulate a policy that everyone can live with for at least the immediate future. (Thetariff is subject to review annually although the last revision went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014.) Once the docket is filed with the PUC, there
