House Bill 1278 Summary

• Requires the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) to adopt emergency rules by August 1, 2012 amending net metering and interconnection rules to make net metering available to all customer classes and allow generating systems sized to meet all or part of a customer's electric load.

• Permits net metering customers to interconnect facilities using solar, wind, microhydroelectric, hydroelectric, combustion technology with renewable fuels or natural gas, fuel cells, biogas, landfill methane, and combined heat and power systems achieving at least 70% efficiency, and allows for customer meter aggregation.

• Exempts rural electric membership corporations and municipally owned utilities from the amended net metering and interconnection rules.

• Requires the IURC to include in its annual report to the regulatory flexibility committee data on net metering customers by class, nameplate capacity, safety and grid reliability incidents, and estimated subsidization of net metering programs by nonparticipating customers.

• Changes the deadline for the IURC's annual energy utility report from August 15 to November 1 each year to align with the General Assembly's interim study committee schedule.