History of On-Site Solar Policy Changes & Advocacy in Idaho

Idaho Power has been trying to limit the use of on-site, ratepayer-owned solar power by Idaho homeowners, small businesses, and farmers for nearly a decade, primarily through policy changes approved by the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Advocacy organizations, solar owners, and local solar companies have been fighting back since then, as well.

This coalition (ILSA) was formally created in 2026 to effectively coordinate information-sharing and actions amongst advocates and achieve shared goals for supporting local solar ownership across southern Idaho.

Timeline of PUC Cases & Rate Changes

  • Idaho Power submitted a proposal to the Idaho PUC to create a new rate classes for homes and small businesses that have rooftop solar, stating its intention to change rates for those ratepayers in the future because they, allegedly, weren’t paying their fair share for the grid.

  • The Idaho PUC approved Idaho Power’s request to create the new rate classes, but directed Idaho Power to conduct a more thorough study showing the true costs that solar owners were having on the grid. Idaho Power then submitted a proposal to the Idaho PUC to replace Net Metering with new, lower on-site solar export rates, only for the homes and small businesses. Idaho PUC approved Idaho Power’s request to create the new rate classes, but directed Idaho Power to conduct a more thorough study showing the true costs that solar owners were having on the grid. Idaho Power then submitted a proposal to the Idaho PUC to replace Net Metering with new, lower on-site solar export rates, only for the homes and small businesses.

  • The Idaho PUC rejected Idaho Power's proposal, restating that the utility needed to conduct a study that provided more evidence, data, and stakeholder input to justify the newly proposed rates. The PUC also granted “legacy status” to existing residential and small business solar owners, as of Dec 2019, so they could maintain the current Net Metering rate structure for the next 20 years. All new solar installations after that date would be subject to any future changes to the rate structure. This created financial uncertainty for Idahoans deciding whether to invest in on-site solar, impacting local solar companies and solar uptake overall.

  •  The Idaho PUC approved Idaho Power's request to grant “legacy status” to existing larger businesses and farms that had on-site solar. Like the decision in 2019 for homes and small businesses, this meant that those existing systems could maintain the Net Metering rate structure, and new systems after Dec 2021 would be subject to any future changes to the rate structure, creating financial uncertainty for any prospective solar owners. 

  • The Idaho PUC established the parameters for Idaho Power to conduct a “value of solar” study, to calculate the precise value of exported energy from on-site, customer-owned solar arrays.

  • The Idaho PUC approved Idaho Power's internal Value of Distributed Energy Resources (VODER) study and its new methodology for calculating on-site solar Export Credit Rates (ECRs) on an annual basis. This allowed Idaho Power to move forward with replacing monthly Net Metering with “instantaneous Net Billing,” a different way to credit solar owners on their power bill for the excess solar energy they share back to the utility grid, with different rates for different times of the year and times of day when the energy is more or less valuable to the grid. This applied to all customer classes, including homes, businesses, and farms.

  • The Idaho PUC approved Idaho Power's request to officially implement Net Billing and use time-differentiated ECRs for the following year that averaged 6.2 ¢/kWh, a decrease from the previous Net Metering rates that averaged 8.8 ¢/kWh. This made rooftop solar less economical and continued to present financial uncertainty for solar owners since the ECRs would be updated every year moving forward. 

    The PUC also partially approved Idaho Power’s request to increase the monthly fixed “service charge” fee on all customer power bills over the next two years, though not as much as Idaho Power originally asked for. For residential ratepayers, that monthly fee went from $5, to $10, to $15 (Idaho Power had requested up to $35). This disproportionately impacted low-income households, energy efficient homes, and solar owners.

  • Idaho PUC partially approved Idaho Power's request to lower the ECRs for the following year to an average 2.5 ¢/kWh. The PUC only allowed a partial decrease in the ECRs to an average 4.3 ¢/kWh, and halted any further annual ECR changes until 2028.

  • Idaho Power will file another request to the Idaho PUC to lower the ECRs in the spring, with the new rates to take effect June 1.