THAT'LL DO NICELY...FOR NOW:

Currently, customers in New Hampshire who net meter their power can get paid the equivalent of their utility's default rate for the electricity, plus transmission charges and 25% of distribution charges.

Don Kreis, the state's consumer advocate, said that was developed as a temporary mechanism to compensate customer generators, as the study on the value of distributed energy resources was completed.

But how much energy customers are able to net meter, and how they're compensated for that energy, has long been a debate in New Hampshire. Previous efforts to expand net metering have been met with skepticism in the past over concerns about cost shifting, or the idea that some electricity customers being able to net meter their renewable power would raise electricity prices for other customers.

The study both addresses the question of cost-shifting and provides a more concrete calculation of the value of resources that could be net metered.

"This potentially could put to rest the argument that there is an unreasonable amount of cost shifting going on here," said Kreis.

The study showed that the development of distributed generation would raise electricity rates around 1% for customers. That would mean a slight increase in monthly bills for customers without solar or other renewables. Monthly bills would go down significantly -- up to 92% -- for customers with renewables of their own.

Chris Skoglund, the director of energy transition at Clean Energy New Hampshire, said the study also demonstrates "that distributed energy resources do provide value to the energy system in New Hampshire, and that, importantly, customers should not just be credited at the wholesale electric rates."

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