The South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) has released a directive enabling solar-electric system owners to use net metering to offset their energy costs.
The net metering program – whereby standard electrical meter records the flow of energy back and forth between the customer generator and the utility's power grid – affects all South Carolina investor-owned utilities, such as Duke Energy, Progress Energy, SCANA and Lockhart Energy.
Until Oct. 31, the PSC is evaluating a form of net metering that would allow residential and small commercial customers to have a choice between a flat-rate tariff or a time-of-use tariff with a demand component.
‘This tariff should be designed to eliminate, as much as possible, any cross-subsidization of customers,’ the directive states. ‘If, after investigation, any utility believes that such a tariff is not feasible, they should explain the reasons for this conclusion in lieu of proposing the requested tariff.’
