By John McFerrin

Although nobody knows for sure, there could be action in the 2025 West Virginia legislative session that makes solar energy more or less attractive or available. There is currently a proposal to Appalachian Power to change net metering practices for its customers. Currently, it is before the Public Service Commission, although the Legislature may weigh in. There will probably be a proposal to provide for community solar as well.

A little history and the current state of the law

Since 2007, electricity which is bought and sold between utilities and consumers has had the same price, no matter who is doing the buying or selling.

The buying and selling took place between utility companies and customers who produced their own electricity. The process is called net metering. Homes and businesses with solar panels remain connected to the electricity grid. At night and during the bleak midwinter they would be taking more electricity from the grid than they produced. During the day and especially during the summer they would be adding electricity to the grid.  No money changes hands. The power company credits the customer when it is delivering electricity and uses those credits to offset times when the customer is using electricity from the grid.

Up until now (but not much longer) the price of electricity was the same whether the customer was buying from the power company or selling to the power company.  

Last year, First Energy (Mon Power and Potomac Edison) asked the West Virginia Public Service Commission to change the price of electricity, depending upon who was doing the selling. The retail price of electricity is about 13 cents per kilowatt hour.  First Energy suggested that the rule change so that, instead of pay 13 cents per kilowatt hour, it pay about 6 cents. There were letters of protest, negotiations, etc. before the Public Service Commission reached a compromise:  Starting in January 2025, electricity purchased from the power company would cost 13 cents per kilowatt hour. Electricity sold to the power company by a customer would be worth 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour.

Customers who connect to the grid before Dec. 31, 2025, would continue to receive 13 cents per hour for the electricity they sell to the power company. 

What’s happening now

These changes only apply to customers of First Energy. Customers of Appalachian Power who have solar panels are still selling to Appalachian Power at the full retail rate of 13 cents per kilowatt hour.

Appalachian Power wants to change that. It has asked the Public Service Commission to dramatically reduce the rate at which it pays for electricity produced by customers who have solar panels.

The most likely result is that the Public Service Commission will adopt the compromise rate of 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour as the rate that utilities pay for power purchased from consumers. It could decide to keep the current 13 cents per kilowatt hour rate. It could decide something else.  It could adopt a lower figure. It has, however, plowed that ground with First Energy and will probably do the same with Appalachian Power.

If the Legislature gets involved, all bets are off. It could pass a statute requiring that electricity sold by the customer have the same price as electricity bought by the customer, the current 13 cents per kilowatt hour rate. It could adopt some other rate. The most likely result is that it will not get involved. Unless some business, person, or group steps forward to make this a legislative issue, it will probably assume the Public Service Commission will take care of it and it does not have to.  

Customers who wish to take advantage of current more favorable rates have to move quickly. First Energy customers only have until the end of December 2024, to be grandfathered in at the current rate. When the Public Service acts upon Appalachian Power’s request, Appalachian Power customers who wish to use solar power will very likely be given a date by which they must be connected to continue to get the current rate.

Community Solar

The other solar related issue that could come up at the Legislature is community solar.  

Community solar allows entities with big roofs—a business, a parking garage, a church, a medical center—to install solar panels on those roofs and then sell the power that it doesn’t use. For example, a business with a big roof and no shade trees anywhere nearby could cover that roof with solar panels. With such a big roof, it would produce more electricity than it needed.  It could then sell the right to use the excess.

Community solar would not be restricted to existing roofs. It could be constructed as a free-standing entity. People could buy shares in the electricity produced by a free standing community solar operation just as they would in one installed on an existing rooftop. If West Virginia allowed community solar, freestanding community solar operations would probably be more common than those on big roofs.  

In addition to the legal barriers, there would be the practical problem of having to string wires, etc. to deliver the electricity. Instead, the excess electricity produced would go back into the electrical grid. Consumers would buy shares of the excess electricity produced by the business, the church, etc. They would then be credited on their electric bills in proportion to the shares they owned in the community solar operation.  

This opens up the possibility for all manner of people to have solar power who cannot have it now. Even though renters do not their own roofs where they could install their own solar panels, they could buy shares of the electricity produced from some big building or freestanding entity. Those who lived in shady spots where solar panels are not possible could buy shares. Those who could not afford the up-front investment in solar panels could buy shares. 

It also opens up the possibility of savings for consumers. Estimates are that consumers could save about ten per cent on their electric bills by enrolling in community solar.

Even if this sounds like a good idea, it can’t happen in West Virginia under existing law.  In West Virginia, electricity is sold by regulated monopolies (Appalachian Power and First Energy). They are regulated by the Public Service Commission which sets rates and controls most aspects of their operations. As regulated monopolies, they control the poles, wires, etc. that a community solar operation would need to distribute electricity to its members.

This is where the Legislature comes in. Before community solar can become a reality in West Virginia, the Legislature would have to change the law.  It would have to authorize community solar and require the Public Service Commission to adopt rules setting out how the monopolies it regulates (Appalachian Power and First Energy) would have to cooperate with community solar operations.

Bills to authorize community solar were introduced during the 2022, 2023, and 2024 sessions of the West Virginia Legislature. They did not pass. There will almost certainly be a similar bill introduced in 2025.