The House Public Utilities and Energy Standing Committee on Oct. 12 approved House Bill 340, the sponsor’s substitute version, to allow sale and use in Utah of small plug‑in solar panels once the National Electrical Code establishes standards and Underwriter Laboratories has certified products.

The bill, introduced by Representative Vork, would not legalize unapproved imports immediately but defines the product so it becomes lawful in Utah if and when the national code and UL certification exist. Sponsor Representative Vork told the committee that the devices are the same technology as rooftop panels but smaller and designed to plug into a household outlet to offset a portion of a home’s electricity use.

Representative Vork said countries in Europe have allowed consumers to buy such panels off the shelf and plug them in, and that Utah law currently forbids plugging them into the home system. “They just go buy a small solar panel and they plug it in, and it makes a little bit of energy,” Vork said, describing the product’s use and noting the need for an inverter and an anti‑islanding safety cutoff so the panel does not feed power into the grid during outages or while an electrician is working.

Committee members focused on safety and market availability. Representative Dominguez asked whether the panels would send power to the grid; Vork said they would almost never do so and that the devices are meant to defray a small share of household use. Representative Peck asked whether such products already are sold in the U.S.; Vork said manufacturers have not produced certified models for the U.S. market because the NEC and certification standards are not yet in place. Representative Chu and Representative Shelley pressed on the safety cutoff for outages and the risk that protections might be bypassed; Vork and other committee members emphasized that anti‑islanding protections are necessary and would be required by the national code and UL standards before the devices would be legal in Utah.

The bill text ties the product’s legality to two external conditions: an explicit standard in the National Electrical Code and UL (Underwriter Laboratories) certification that the product meets that standard. The sponsor also told the committee he had consulted engineers at Rocky Mountain Power about safety language and that utilities would have no obligation or liability under the bill; the devices are not intended to sell power back to a utility.

Committee action: Representative Peck moved adoption of the first substitute and then moved favorable passage of HB 340 with the substitute; both motions passed by voice vote with no members opposed.

The committee record shows no public testimony on HB 340 during this meeting. With the committee’s favorable recommendation, the substitute text of HB 340 now moves to the next steps in the legislative process as determined by House rules.

Why it matters: if implemented with national code and certification, the change would broaden consumer options for small, plug‑in solar devices and could create a new retail market in Utah. The bill leaves the timing of legal sales contingent on national code changes and product certification, and it ties safety requirements to those external standards.