Washington state regulators approved a plan to allow customers to get credit on their bills by selling unused renewable energy credits to their local utility, Puget Sound Energy Inc.
In 1998, a state law was passed requiring local utilities to credit customers’ bills when renewable energy was given to utilities. Other utilities in Washington, Avista Corp and PacifiCorp, already have plans to credit utility bills from customers who give them renewable power. However, these two utilities do not have a problem with the net metering law, as they have no customers who participate in the programme.
Puget Sound executives say they are worried about who would pay for liability insurance in case a renewable generator explodes or catches fire. To resolve the issue of who would pay for insurance, the WUTC approved a plan whereby Puget Sound pays an annual premium of $10 000 liability insurance to cover its customers.
