Net Metering would allow a school, farm, municipality, or community group to buy a wind turbine and place it in a remote location, then assign the energy from the turbine back to the schools, farms and towns - down the street or across town. It also allows for a private company to do the same thing and turn a profit. NStar is obliged to assign this power for free – this means that the assigned power will have a retail value and will be a powerful form of revenue for whoever owns the turbine.
Net metering will be critical for these projects because not all locations are ideal locations for wind turbines. Most especially on the Vineyard, proximity to airports (the FAA will limit turbine height and size in many Island towns), dense population centers, or access to a good wind resource can determine what are ideal locations for wind turbines.
The Mass. Department of Public Utilities is in the process of writing regulations that will implement the net metering and power assignment parts of the Green Communities Act. This Act, passed into law in July, will allow a small number of renewable energy projects (wind turbines, solar PV, etc) into a quota – those projects that get into this quota will be able to participate in net metering and power assignment; those projects that don’t will only be able to sell excess power at wholesale prices or use power on-site.
The quota is very small – currently set by state law at 1% of NStar’s peak load (about 50 megawatts). This quota has to be shared by the entire NStar territory. DPU regulations will determine who gets into this quota and how.
These issues mean that getting into the special net metering quota is critical. The DPU understands that and is trying to carefully weigh to competing interests of various groups – the private developers in it for profit, the Cape and Vineyard Electric Coop, the small community stakeholders, the farmers, and the Vineyard.