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Lawmakers decline to advance bill allowing net‑metered energy to be time‑shifted without added guardrails
Summary
The committee considered House Bill 7‑61, which would permit net‑metered generation to be charged to batteries and exported later. Concern over potential arbitrage and the absence of statutory guardrails led the committee to vote ITL.
House Bill 7‑61 would allow net‑metered customer generation to be time‑shifted by charging batteries and exporting the stored energy later to the grid. Proponents said the change enables customer storage to align production with times of higher value and contributes to grid flexibility. Representative Korman offered a narrow amendment focused on deleting one section; supporters argued the PUC or DOE could implement rules to address operational details.
Opponents and several committee members said the bill as drafted lacked guardrails to prevent potential gaming — for example, charging a battery with low‑price grid energy and selling to the grid at higher prices later — and that statutory direction on permissible uses, compensation mechanics or anti‑arbitrage rules was needed. Lawmakers also debated whether the PUC and DOE already had authority to address these questions through tariff or rulemaking.
Committee action
- House Bill 7‑61: Motion to adopt ITL; vote 10–8 (executive session).
Why it matters
Storage paired with distributed generation can provide system benefits, improve reliability, and enable customers to capture time‑specific value for energy and ancillary services. Lawmakers said they support storage conceptually but wanted clearer statutory direction or rules to prevent unintended market distortions before enacting a change.
Next steps
The committee adopted ITL. Supporters suggested returning next session with more detailed statutory guardrails or relying on PUC rulemaking where the commission’s authority is clear.
