Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin has signed S.B.1456, which enables retail electricity providers to impose a tariff on customers who install grid-connected distributed generation (DG) systems, such as residential solar power arrays and small wind turbines. The measure modifies an existing law prohibiting retail electricity providers from imposing such tariffs.
The law directs retail electricity providers to create the new tariffs by Dec. 31, 2015, but will not apply to ratepayers who install DG systems as of Nov. 1 of this year. The law says providers cannot charge more than is required to recover the costs DG imposes on them.
Recalling echoes of net energy metering debates elsewhere in the country, the new law states, ‘No retail electric supplier shall allow customers with distributed generation installed after the effective date of this act to be subsidized by customers in the same class of service who do not have distributed generation.’
In addition to signing S.B.1456 into law, Fallin also issued an executive order reaffirming support for "all forms of energy, including both traditional fossil fuels and renewable energy sources like wind and solar power." The order says that tariffs on DG capacity are subject to approval by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission after a ‘transparent evaluation.’
