Burlington Electric Department recently filed a proposed tariff (Case 22-3947) that would terminate the utility’s long-standing practice of providing monetary payments to customers with net-metering systems permitted prior to 2017. The proposed tariff would also impose new limits on how long these systems could carry credit balances.
REV has serious concerns about the practice of retroactively modifying the compensation terms for net-metering customers. The potential harm in this practice is not only in reduced compensation to impact customers but also the effect depriving Vermonters of the ability to rely upon the structural terms of the applicable net-metering tariff at the time that they enter the program. Such a precedent could make it significantly more difficult and more costly for Vermonters interested in participating in net-metering to secure financing for these projects if financial institutions and other investors see the compensation structure as vulnerable to change in any future tariff case. REV has filed a motion to intervene in the case with the Public Utilities Commission and asked the PUC to deny this element of the proposed tariff.
Read REV’s letter to the PUC.