The MA Department of Public Utilities is thinking of allowing Accrued Solar Net Meter Credits from one account to be allowed to be transferred to other accounts. That is a step in the right direction. They need your comments by 11-11-25.
On page 11 of D.P.U. 25-117 Order and Excel Attachment you’ll see instructions on where to email your PDF file with comments.
Pushing our elected representatives to do the right thing is essential because if it is left to the utilities companies they want no solar panels on roofs and no net metering because they don’t care about Global Warming, they just care about making more and more money.
For example, Florida Power and Light, the largest electric utility company in the US, is not forced to pay retail Net Metering at the end of the year or allow unused credits to be carried forward and rolled over into the next year. The Republican FL Public Service Commission has allowed them to pay the wholesale price of $0.02/kWh at the end of the year instead of the regular retail price of $0.17/kWh. This legalized theft of $0.15/kWh of private property (the kWh produced by our solar panels) is costing about $10,000 per household during the life of the panels in cases where the household is not in FL during the summer when it’s too hot and the kWhs accumulate unused with the idea that they will be used in the winter which is not possible at the moment.
To avoid sliding back to the times when America was “great” when solar panels did not exist and there was no check on utility companies profits and damage to the environment please write to the MA Department of Public Utilities.
Here is my submission:
“WRITTEN COMMMENTS ON D.P.U.25-117 SPECIFICALLY REGARDING THE TRANSFER OF ACCRUED NET METER BALANCES
National Grid told me that the Department of Public Utilities is currently not allowing them to transfer net metering solar credit accumulated into an account. They are not allowed to transfer it from that account to other accounts. They said the only way I can use my credit is to close the solar net metering account that has the credit. That is absurd.
I have one net metering solar account that has about $400 credit which I would like to apply to other accounts I have that could use this credit. The only reason it accumulated is because in 2023 National Grid mistakenly distributed my solar production to 4 accounts not to the 5 accounts I had specified in my Schedule Z. So because of their error I have about a $400 credit sitting in my net meter account which I can never use because 100% of my current solar production is already being distributed.
Why is the DPU not allowing transfers of credits?
The way solar credits should work is like bank accounts. We should be able to log into National Grid at any time and transfer online any credit we have from any of our accounts to our other accounts to pay those bills. What is the point of having solar credits in one account if we can’t use them to pay bills in other accounts?
Also
1. The Delivery Services amount from the previous month matches the Other Charges/Adjustments for next month on the National Grid Statements/Bills. Why can’t the Net Meter Credit match the Transfer Amount on the same bills? In other words whatever the solar panels produce (The Net Meter Credit) should be shown to be 100% transferred to the selected Schedule Z accounts…on the same bill not on the next bill. National Grid was telling me something to the effect that the way it is now is because the bills with the Net Meter Credit go a day or two before the Transferred amount is known. It’s a mess.
2. If on Schedule Z you have 5 accounts and you want to determine if the correct percentages were transferred to each account from the Transferred Amount on the bill, right now it’s impossible to figure out and check because different accounts have different TO and FROM dates. Why is that the case? Shouldn’t all electric accounts have the same TO and FROM dates for each month? Why can’t it be from the 1st of the month to the last day of the month for all accounts? Whatever the solar panels produce (The Net Meter Credit) should be shown to be 100% transferred to the selected Schedule Z accounts…on the same bill not on the next bill. Ideally on the same bill it should also show how much was transferred and into which account and when we go into that account statement for the same month these amounts should match to the cent. Right now it’s a big mess and no one including National Grid employees can tell how much was transferred into individual accounts and when. The rep can see the Schedule Z percentages but no one can trace the actual dollar amounts on the Statements.
The best thing to do really is to allow all solar customers to log into National Grid and transfer credits from the net meter accounts to any other standard meter accounts that have a bill that needs to be paid. A customer should be able to log onto National Grid and transfer credits from the net metering account into accounts that have outstanding bills so that those bills can be paid by the transfer of credit. Why is the Department of Public Utility not allowing National Grid to do that? They should be encouraging them to do that. Some customers could do it manually each month as needed or some can automate the process and pay certain percentages each month, change them as needed or just configure auto-pay for certain percentages. There should no longer be any need for filing Schedule Z and wasting everyone’s time. Why limit these transfers to just once a year in March? Would you limit bank transfers to once a year?”