No specific recommendations for solar net-metering

Working group had met for several months but ended up agreeing to disagree on key items

A working group convened by Gov. Jared Polis in 2023 to come up with recommendations to update Colorado’s net-metering law has failed in that task.

After meetings from February into July, the electric utilities, the solar industry, environmental organizations, local governments and other organizations could not even agree whether Colorado’s laws governing net metering are even necessary, let alone the specific changes to net-metering policy.

However, they did identify several areas of broad agreement that could provide a platform for potential changes.

The report prepared by the Center for the New Energy Economy notes that Colorado adopted net-metering in 2004 as a policy to create a rooftop solar market in Colorado. It has succeeded – too well in the last few years, in the eyes of some utilities, most notably Holy Cross Energy. Directors of Holy Cross Energy at first agreed to yank the net-metering that allowed those with rooftop solar to pay less but withdrew that position after fierce objection from some members as well as from the Colorado Solar and Storage Association.

That controversy led to the creation of the working group.

In general, the utilities that participated in the working group indicated they believe the current law and regulations provide insufficient flexibility in their ability to recover costs and to manage peak loads. The solar industry, in general, saw no need to change net-metering and further argued that the concerns expressed by utilities about resource adequacy and cost shifts to other customers were not substantiated.

One of the discussion points was how to treat electrical consumers who already have roof-top solar. The solar organization argued for a 25-year period when solar customers would be unaffected by changes. The electrical cooperatives argued for 10 years.

Bottom line: There is room for thoughtful discussion. But it would be surprising to see legislation in the next session on this issue.

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