The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), the nation's sixth largest publicly owned utility, has established a feed-in tariff (FIT) that will help the company buy electricity that is fed into its distribution system from eligible generation units at customer sites.
Effective next January, SMUD says the FIT will remove barriers to interconnection by reducing regulations and standardizing the price SMUD pays for power, making it easier for the utility and its customers to do business.
The FIT will apply to systems up to 5 MW that are connected to SMUD's local distribution system, and is capped at 100 megawatts system-wide. The SMUD FIT applies to both renewable and fossil-fuel generation technologies. However, it sets higher prices for power produced from renewable sources. In part, the FIT will help the utility meets its renewable portfolio standard and greenhouse gas reduction goals.
