Dive Brief:

• The Mississippi Public Service Commission is expected this week to take up and allow public comment on a proposal to approve net metering in the state, the Desoto Times Tribune reports. 
• Solar advocates have been pushing the regulators to give a thumbs-up to net metering, which allows solar owners to sell power back to the grid. 43 states and D.C. allow net metering, but Mississippi is not one of them. 
• Last year a study released by Synapse Energy Economics concluded net metering would be a boon for residents, but also warned of potential challenges for utilities.

Dive Insight:

The Desoto Times Tribune reports that Mississippi is one of only a handful states without a net metering policy, but regulators have begun the process that could lead to one and are preparing to take public comment on the idea.

"We need to be a door opener and not a gatekeeper when it comes to allowing Mississippians to be energy independent at their house," said Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley. "It's just a part of the American way of life to be self reliant." 

Last year the Mississippi Public Service Commission hired Synapse to evaluate the impacts of instituting a net metering policy. The firm analyzed a variety of scenarios involving the cost of conventional resources, transmission and distribution, energy and capacity markets, system losses, and other cost points. In nearly every scenario, net metering's benefits would outweigh the costs, the report determined.

Synapse analyzed the impacts of installing rooftop solar equivalent to 0.5% of the state's historical peak demand. At that level, the analysis warned, distributed solar would decrease revenues for the state's utilities, especially because net metering participants would need to be compensated at a rate beyond the variable retail rate in order to finance solar installations.