This article submitted by Joe and Lee Scheidler who are Owners of Springcreek Landscaping in Logansport. They are members of the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.
Pharos-Tribune
June 25, 2010
LMU approves net metering, cogeneration
Program will keep LMU ahead of state regulations
by Mark Fletcher
Pharos-Tribune
— The Logansport Municipal Utility Service Board has approved a net metering program that will help its customers pay their utility bills, save the environment and stay ahead of state regulations.
Net metering allows customers with renewable-energy systems to generate electricity and apply it toward their utility bills.
The provision approved at Tuesday’s meeting also included cogeneration, a process where a user creates electricity and heat at the same time.
LMU Superintendent Paul Hartman said the difference between net metering and cogeneration largely came down to the use of renewable energy sources and scale or magnitude.
Net metering requires the use of alternative, or renewable, energy sources. Cogeneration systems normally produce electricity and steam heat with the customer using the heat and selling the electricity. More than that, cogeneration systems can be large.
Hartman said net metering customers would have a system installed on their service line, where a cogeneration system would connect directly to LMU’s power grid.
Board member Tom Slusser expressed some misgivings about both net metering and cogeneration. Slusser said it might lead to unforeseen economic problems at LMU.
Hartman said much of what LMU wanted to accomplish with net metering was to help its customers and encourage the use of alternative energy sources.
He also pointed out that net metering and cogeneration systems would keep LMU ahead of state regulations. Hartman said the state might eventually require electric companies to acquire part of their electricity from renewable sources.
“This is our way of saying we are going to go ahead and do that before we are told,” Hartman said.
Several on the board expressed concerns about cogeneration, and Hartman said one issue might involve the amount of power a large cogeneration system might send to LMU’s grid.
“One of our customers might install a facility so large we couldn’t handle the power coming from it,” Hartman said.
He added the resolution gave LMU the power to limit the size of those facilities.
LMU has two net metering customers and no cogeneration customers. Hartman said one customer, however, was considering cogeneration.
Net metering and cogeneration are designed to benefit not LMU, but the customer, Hartman said.
“The only way it could benefit LMU is it might help us shave our peak use during the summer,” Hartman said.
• Mark R. Fletcher is a reporter for the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at 574-732-5148 or mark.fletcher@pharostribune.com
This article brought to you by the Indiana Renewable Energy Association.
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