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HIGHLAND - As Ameren Illinois prepares to change its net metering policy, the solar professionals at GRID Solar, LLC, want you to know that there’s still time to get a good net metering deal if you sign on to solar before the end of this year.
Ryan Wagner, co-owner of GRID Solar, LLC, explained that Ameren Illinois will change its net metering policy starting on Jan. 1, 2025. This will affect the way that people with solar panels “trade” energy with Ameren.
The agreement to trade electricity with the power company is known as net metering. When your solar panels produce a surplus of electricity during the day, the excess electricity is returned to the grid and powers your neighbors’ homes. In return, the utility company gives you credits and will power your house at night when there is no sunlight and therefore no electricity being produced.
In the past, Ameren counted these credits once a year. This means your overproduction in spring, summer and fall could make up for your underproduction in wintertime so that your net annual bill would be “pretty close to zero,” Wagner explained. Starting in January, Ameren will begin counting the credits every month, so your winter power bill will rise again.
“Folks with electric heat especially are going to have these Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde systems. Zero-dollar power bills in spring, summer and fall, and then the power bills are coming back pretty strong during the winter,” Wagner said. “When you design for an entire year, it’s relatively easy. You use 13,000 kilowatt hours, I produce 13,000 kilowatt hours. I don’t care when you produce them, it works. But now we’re going to have to break it down per month.”
Customers will likely see an increase in energy bills during the winter months. According to Wagner, this net metering change benefits the utility company, not the customer. He believes it also hurts the solar industry.
“I promise you, the rules will continue to get less advantageous to the consumer as we go,” he added. “I always ask people, who do you think has the deeper pockets when it comes to politicians, the solar industry or utilities? It’s the utilities. They have the deeper pockets. And so when it comes to policy changes like this, like the one we’re talking about, this is bad for solar and good for the utilities. The utilities tend to win those battles.”
Wagner also highlighted the importance of working with a solar company that understands this new change. For example, if your ideal system has a 70% reduction in your power bill under these new guidelines, it makes sense to design a system that only meets 70%. But a solar company might still design a system to be at 100%. GRID Solar wants to make sure their customers get the systems that are right for them.
“If you just blindly buy 100% systems and then all of a sudden your power bills are only reduced by 70%, it’s going to be too late by the time you realize that,” Wagner explained. “By the time you realize your system was designed incorrectly, it will be far too late. There’s no receipts on these. You can’t take them back to the store and say, ‘Hey, you didn’t give me what you sold me.’”
However, Wagner said, there’s still time to purchase a new system that is not affected by the change to net metering. Ameren’s new net metering rules go into effect in January. If you get signed up before the end of the year — Wagner encourages people to aim for August or September — you will be grandfathered in for 15 years. This means your system will follow the net metering guidelines that are currently in place, where you don’t see a significant increase to your winter power bills.
Wagner noted that solar can be confusing, and there are a lot of companies who pressure potential customers into making quick decisions. At GRID Solar, LLC, “information is free 100% of the time,” he said.
According to Wagner, everyone at GRID Solar, LLC, has a passion for the work they do. They want to help their customers get the best deal, and they are always happy to talk with people, answer questions and explain how solar could benefit you.
“We’re solar nerds. We prove that time and again,” Wagner said. “This isn’t just a hobby of ours or something we do. We didn’t sell cell phones yesterday and we’re out selling cars tomorrow. This is definitely our passion. This is our industry.”
You can visit their official website at GRIDSolarLLC.com or their Facebook page to learn more about their services.
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