This project will develop a realistic pathway for resolving disputes over net metering and distributed resource pricing, by addressing the larger issue of an outdated utility regulatory model that was not designed for distributed generation and prosumers. The project will develop recommendations for how to reform market structures to determine utility cost-recovery as well as compensation for customers who supply products and services to the grid.

Through a comprehensive, market-based approach, the team will improve on current pricing approaches, which have been piecemeal and unable to provide a stable, long-term pathway. Following Accelerator, the project team will disseminate our recommendations and work with industry stakeholders, including the larger solar industry, utilities, and regulators to promote improved pricing structures in key markets.

At Accelerator, the team stepped back from day-to-day activities to consider how solar and DER pricing mechanisms need to evolve over the next decade. The team identified key attributes of future electricity market designs, including open access for DERs, investor confidence in pricing structures, and an expanded marketplace for distributed technologies and services.

The team also reviewed strawman options for advanced rate designs that can support a sustainable pathway to new solar and DER compensation mechanisms, and outlined a set of publications to write in support of this work. Team members agreed to key milestones and next steps to carry this work forward for the next 12 months and beyond.