House Bill 784 Summary

• Establishes the Mississippi Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Program requiring electrical utilities with over 100,000 customer accounts to develop renewable energy programs achieving at least 2% of five-year average retail peak demand by 2023.

• Creates net energy metering program allowing customer-generators with renewable facilities (up to 1,000 kW for non-residential, 20 kW for residential) to offset electricity costs using bidirectional metering, with annual payment for excess generation at avoided cost rates.

• Authorizes utilities to recover DER program costs through a separate component of fuel factor charges, capped at $12 per account for residential, $120 for commercial, and $1,200 for industrial customers annually.

• Establishes renewable energy leasing program allowing third-party lessors to lease renewable facilities to customer-generators under Public Utilities Staff certification and registration, with capacity limitations and consumer protection requirements.

• Requires Public Service Commission to establish interconnection standards for renewable facilities up to 2,000 kW, mandates utility cost-shifting studies by December 31, 2017, and requires electric cooperatives to adopt net metering policies and report on cost allocation issues by December 31, 2019.