Fort Collins Utilities - Net Metering

Summary

Fort Collins Utilities (FCU) offers residential customers the opportunity to participate in a net-metering pilot program. This program will enable FCU to learn more about the actual costs and operational impacts of serving small parallel-generation customers and, if appropriate, to design new policies and rates for such customers. "Parallel generation" refers to an electrical generation system on the customer's side of the meter that operates at standard household voltages and is connected to the FCU electric distribution system. Electric needs in the home may be served by either the on-site generator or the FCU system. FCU will allow a maximum of 25 residential generating facilities to be connected to its distribution system and will credit these customers, at the full retail rate, for electricity they generate. At the end of the five-year project, customers participating in the pilot program will be subject to the applicable parallel-generation rate. The special terms of the pilot program will apply until 12/31/09. On that date, interconnection terms will revert to the applicable FCU provisions in effect at that time. Qualifying generating facilities for this project are limited to residential applications 10 kilowatts (manufacturer peak output rating) or smaller in capacity. A single meter, which records the customer's net use of electricity, will be used for billing purposes. (An alternate load survey meter may be installed at the utility's expense to collect data for evaluation purposes.) Customers will be billed for net monthly energy consumption under the FCU "Residential Energy Service" rate. There are no standby charges. Net excess energy generation (NEG) is credited to the customer's account on a monthly basis as a kilowatt-hour credit. Any unused NEG will be granted to FCU (without compensation to the customer) at the end of each 12-month billing cycle. The customer's inverter must meet IEEE 1547 and UL 1741 standards. A lockable disconnect switch is required. FCU will have the option to install and maintain monitoring equipment on the customer's side of the meter to gather data about power production by the customer's system. Larger customer-owned parallel-generation systems also may be connected to the FCU distribution system, but other conditions apply. Contact the FCU engineering staff at (970) 221-6700 for more information on larger systems.