A group of consumers, interest groups and energy businesses have asked the Public Service Commission to change the existing residential PV “anniversary month” rule used to accomplish the annual net metering account reconciliation. Although residential solar PV owners may make a one-time anniversary date election, the petition states, many do not understand the issue well enough to effectively exercise this option, and many are not aware that they have been defaulted to a non-optimal anniversary date by their utility. The petitioners suggest four potential options for addressing this issue:

• Require the most beneficial month to be assigned by default, possibly varied by region in New York and with an opt-out provision.
• Allow indefinite credit rollover or a five-year reconciliation period (rather than annual reconciliation).
• Direct NYSERDA to address the problem by educating installers and new customers of the significance of this issue.
• Require utilities to use monthly monetary crediting at the retail rate, rather than rolling over kWh and subjecting the kWh balance to an annual cash-out.

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