By Carol Britton Meyer

The Hull Municipal Light Board created a task force this week after a ratepayer expressed frustration with the utility’s recent switch from net metering to net billing for customers with solar panels on their homes.

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On Monday, Denise Fisher told the board why she and other residents with solar arrays are frustrated about the recent switch from net metering to net billing and the negative impacts of this change for “residents and the local economy.”

The idea behind net metering is for customers with solar to earn “credits” on their Hull Light bill for the energy their solar panels produce, to reduce the amount they are charged monthly. A recently instituted fee structure based on a solar system’s capacity changes that premise.

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Fisher provided an overview of Hull Municipal Light Plant’s net metering and net billing policies and the background to this policy change, which went into effect May 1.

The change increased the array charge from $2.00 per kW installed per month to $4.05 per installed kW per month and no longer allows customers to use banked credits.

Concerns include that this change penalizes solar users, making it impossible to recover the cost of installing their solar arrays, while at the same time discouraging others from investing in solar power.

Customer concerns

Fisher’s presentation outlined customer concerns and community feedback she has heard in response to the change related to fairness and transparency of ongoing policies, and that increased costs negatively impact solar owners financially, as well as potentially causing a setback to Hull’s clean energy goals.

“Instead of penalizing solar customers with extra fees, solar advocates propose policies like a ‘value of solar’ tariff, which would compensate solar owners for the total benefits they provide to the grid. This approach aims to provide a more accurate valuation that considers all the positive impacts, not just the financial effects on the utility’s bottom line,” Fisher said.

Supported by “concerned solar owners and citizens,” Fisher asked the board to roll back the May 1 policy change and to research what neighboring communities are doing.

Task force will report back

The task force, consisting of light board chair Tom Burns, who has a solar array, and light board member Dan Ciccariello, who doesn’t, will examine the solar rate structure and address the concerns aired by Fisher and other solar users on Monday, along with written comments and concerns shared with either Burns or light plant manager/town manager Jennifer Constable.

The task force will report its findings during a public meeting – after notifying the town’s solar users – within the next two to three months.

“We’re trying to deal with everyone’s concerns – including mine – and come up with a more transparent policy that better reflects our commitment [to solar energy],” Burns said. “We want to encourage the use of solar energy, and I [recognize] that this revised policy makes it very difficult for people who want solar to get onto the solar bandwagon, which is not my intention… You’ve got a good advocate right here [referring to himself].”

The task force will also research how other communities are dealing with this issue.

During the meeting, Fisher noted that there is no mention in the April light board minutes about approving the solar billing change.

In response, Constable explained that the motion adopted by the board that night concerned an Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company presentation that included the policy change.

‘Minutes can be extremely short’

Burns said that minutes can be “extremely short and just mention a motion and a vote. They’re not intended to reflect the entire meeting.” The task force will also reach out to MMWEC to put some numbers together.

Following more discussion about this issue, board member Patrick Cannon – noting, “We’ve made some good headway with [the establishment of a] task force” – said, “We’ve discussed this issue before, so let’s run with it.”

The next light board meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 16.

A replay of this week’s meeting will be available on demand on Hull Community Television’s website, www.hulltv.net.

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