Dive Brief:

The Louisiana Public Service Commission has passed net metering rules lifting the utility cap and ensures customers will receive the retail rate for excess generation sent back to the grid, the New Orleans Advocate reports.

The new rules end several years of debate and discussion, during which consumer advocates argued utilities were able to set their own rules and tariffs that made the systems far less beneficial.

The Advocate reports the new rules are not permanent, however, and will undergo a six months to two-year review phase before being made final.

Dive Insight:

Net metering policy in Louisiana—outside of New Orleans, where it is regulated by the City Council—has been a long time coming. According to the advocate, the PSC has been working on this policy for more than a decade, across the leadership of four different commission chairs. The end result is in some ways similar to Mississippi's landmark decision to enact a net metering policy, but review it after five years.

Entergy Louisiana hit its net metering cap of 0.5% last year. Beginning in January, new system owners were paid a lower rate based on the utility's avoided cost for other generation, plus considerations for line loss and daytime power costs.

Regulators last year voted to keep the 0.5% net metering cap in place while working on the broader policy. Louisiana PSC Commissioner Erik Skrmetta, a critic of net metering, led the vote to implement the caps, and accepted the findings of a draft LPSC report claiming that increasing the cap would add $809 million to ratepayer bills.