Oct. 13, 2006 — The V.I. Water and Power Authority will "wholeheartedly support" the establishment of a net-metering policy for the territory, Alberto Bruno-Vega, the utility's executive director said at a Public Services Commission meeting Friday.
Bruno-Vega and Bevan Smith Jr., director of the V.I. Energy Office under the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, said the two entities have recently been collaborating to come up with a net-metering standard that would allow ratepayers who create their own renewable energy through wind or solar power generation to donate their excess energy to WAPA at the end of each month.
However, Bruno-Vega said a cap has to be placed on how much power a producer (either an individual or business) can donate under the net-metering program. On St. Croix, the amount of power given to WAPA cannot exceed 5 megawatts (or 5,000 kilowatts), while the amount of power given to WAPA on St. Thomas and St. John can not exceed 10 megawatts (or 10,000 kilowatts), he said.
When contacted after the meeting, Bruno-Vega said the cap would allow about 500 customers to participate in the program on St Croix, given that the customers do not produce more than 10 kilowatts of power. Likewise, in the St. Thomas-St. John district, approximately 1,000 customers would be able to participate in the program given that those individuals do not produce more than 10 kilowatts of power.
During the meeting, Bruno-Vega explained that on the mainland the cap is set at one-tenth of 1 percent of a utility's peak load, which would only allow about five V.I. customers to participate in a net-metering program. "That's not significant enough to make a difference in the territory," he said. "We need to use, to the max, our natural resources, which are solar and wind power. So we've raised that cap to 10 percent of the peak load generated by WAPA's system."
While Bruno-Vega said this system would pose a challenge for WAPA, a net-metering standard would "save a significant amount of money" for customers.
"With net metering, all the power a customer produces and consumes is almost free of charge," he said. Customers would, however, have to pay for the equipment necessary to participate in the program, such as photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into electricity.
In terms of how the system would affect WAPA, Bruno-Vega said after the meeting that the utility could face a 10 percent decrease in revenues. "WAPA would have to streamline its operations, become significantly more efficient and would have to do much more with less," he said. "But we will have to meet that challenge, because in the long run it is about saving money for our customers."
During the meeting, Smith explained that the establishment of a net-metering standard would tie into provisions included in the federal Energy Policy Act of 2005, which attempts to establish a comprehensive long-term energy policy for the states and territories.
According to Larry Gawlick, a technical consultant to the PSC, regulatory bodies such as the PSC are required to consider the standards set out in the energy policy and determine whether or not to implement them. The four standards set out in the act pertain to fuel diversity, interconnection with small power providers, smart metering and net metering.
"Net metering is currently not offered by WAPA, but certainly an interest in setting up such a standard has been expressed by the community," Gawlick said.
Smith proposed that a net-metering agreement be implemented immediately for a trial period of one year. During that time, WAPA and the V.I. Energy Office will collect data to determine a final net-metering standard, which will be adopted, after receiving PSC approval, within the following three years.
PSC board members did not act on Smith's suggestion during the meeting.
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