In Move to Further Encourage Virgin Islanders to be Energy Independent, V.I. Energy Office Announces Removal of Grid Access Charge

The V.I. Energy Office this week announced that it was deferring a grid access charge (GAC) from its Net Energy Billing Program, a move that could serve as an additional incentive for Virgin Islanders to take advantage of the program.

In 2019, the Bryan administration announced a successor to the previous net metering program that would allow residents to offset their electricity costs by selling power back onto the V.I. Water and Power Authority grid. The program is for residents utilizing alternative sources of energy.

Called the Net Energy Billing program, or NEB, the effort aims to foster the deployment of distributed generation of renewable energy throughout the territory along with greater energy independence for property owners, the administration said at the time.

This week, the Energy Office took another step to make the program even more attractive by deferring the grid access charge. It said that initial inclusion of the GAC "served to ensure that individual clients that invest in distributed generation continue to contribute to the utility’s fixed infrastructure costs regardless of net excess monthly generation. The GAC was originally based on the installed system’s nameplate size. This value was deemed fair and reasonable by all program development stakeholders to include the Public Services Commission. However, V.I. WAPA is currently undertaking a comprehensive cost of service study and avoided cost study. As a result, the decision has been made to defer assessing the GAC to distributed energy customers. The other aspects of the rate structure will remain the same to include the excess generation credit and non-monthly accrual of excess generation credits."