By: Public News Service
Major utilities in West Virginia, Mon Power and Potomac Edison, want to reduce the credit their solar customers get for producing power the utilities use. Critics countered the move would dampen the market for solar in the state.
Net metering is a billing mechanism giving credits to residential and small business owners for excess energy produced by their solar panels, which flows back into the grid. Customers are only billed for the difference between what they use and what they generate, and earned credits can be used to lower monthly costs.
Emmett Pepper, policy director for the nonprofit Energy Efficient West Virginia, said current solar customers would not be affected, but the change would affect people who want to take control of their energy bills.
"The reason that most people want to have solar panels is to save money and this will make it harder to do that," Pepper contended.