§ 23-18-604 - Authority of Arkansas Public Service Commission.

23-18-604. Authority of Arkansas Public Service Commission.

(a) An electric utility shall allow net-metering facilities to be interconnected using a standard meter capable of registering the flow of electricity in two (2) directions.

(b) Following notice and opportunity for public comment, the Arkansas Public Service Commission:

(1) Shall establish appropriate rates, terms, and conditions for net-metering contracts, including a requirement that metering equipment be installed to both accurately measure the electricity supplied by the electric utility to each net-metering customer and also to accurately measure the electricity generated by each net-metering customer that is fed back to the electric utility over the applicable billing period;

(2) May authorize an electric utility to assess a net-metering customer a greater fee or charge of any type, if the electric utility's direct costs of interconnection and administration of net metering outweigh the distribution system, environmental, and public policy benefits of allocating the costs among the electric utility's entire customer base;

(3) Shall require electric utilities to credit a net-metering customer with any accumulated net excess generation in the next applicable billing period;

(4) May expand the scope of net metering to include additional facilities that do not use a renewable energy resource for a fuel or may increase the peak limits for individual net-metering facilities, if so doing results in desirable distribution system, environmental, or public policy benefits; and

(5) Shall provide that:

(A) Any net excess generation credit remaining in a net-metering customer's account at the close of an annual billing cycle shall expire; and

(B) Any renewable energy credit created as the result of electricity supplied by a net-metering customer is the property of the net-metering customer that generated the renewable credit.