The Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) lifted a year-long suspension on the state’s solar incentives for public schools and low-income households.
The three-man commission unanimously voted to lift the stay after the state government did not receive any Solar for All funding from the federal government. During the meeting, the commission said it originally suspended the programs because it did not need to place additional incentives on top of the federal funds.
The Solar for Schools program, one of the incentives the MPSC lifted from the stay, is only available to the 95 public school districts that are provided electricity through Entergy Mississippi or Mississippi Power Company, the two largest investor-owned utilities in the state.
The program enables schools to offset their electric bills without an upfront cost. Instead, a third-party solar company finances and owns the installation in exchange for tax credits, and sells the electricity to the school district through a power purchase agreement (PPA) at the price of the utility’s avoided cost of energy plus 4.5 cents.
The program also provides incentives for battery storage and low-income participants in its distributed generation rule. Mississippi Power’s Solar for Schools rates are available here.
Mississippi’s distributed generation rule is similar to, and was previously called “net metering,” but excess generation is not netted one-to-one against consumption over the billing period. Instead, the excess energy is credited at the utility’s wholesale avoided cost rate plus an additional “Non-Quantifiable Expected Benefits Adder” of 2.5 cents per kWh. “Avoided cost” refers to the difference between the cost of solar generated by a rooftop and the cost of the utility procuring that energy from a different generation facility.
(Read: Mississippi revamps its net metering policy & Mississippi boosts low-income incentives in updated net metering rules)
None of the eligible school districts were able to use the Solar for Schools program before it was suspended, according to Mississippi Today. However, some schools have taken advantage of solar’s benefits, such as Northeast Middle School in Lauderdale County and the Ocean Springs School District.
Image: Northeast Middle School
For low-income households to be eligible for the added incentive, the customer must have a household income at or below 225% of the federal poverty level, or a similar requirement approved by the MPSC. This adder remains in place for 15 years from the date the customer begins the service.
In January, the MPSC updated NEM-2’s value of distributed generation that is applied to excess credits to 5.5 cents per kWh for customers who are ineligible for the tariff’s low-to-moderate income adder, and to 7.5 cents per kWh for those who are eligible.
Within two weeks of the MSPC’s decision to end the state’s solar incentive programs, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded $62 million in funds through Solar for All to the Hope Enterprise Corporation, a group that advances affordable and resilient solar energy access for low-income and disadvantaged households across Mississippi.
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