MidAmerican's Answer to Iowa Board's Response at 8. The Iowa Board filed a notice of intervention and protest. The Iowa Board states that its orders are permissible implementations of state energy policy and are not in conflict with Federal law. One argument made by MidAmerican, however, warrants further comment. This is not how net billing works.
Net billing involves only one meter and one net transaction.
Under net billing, the AEP produces power primarily for the owner's needs. Other times, the AEP may not generate sufficient power for the owner's needs and the AEP draws power from the utility through the single meter. Electricity flows through the meter in both directions and is netted out and one meter reading made at the end of a billing period. It also states that it is aware that some Alternate Energy facilities are covered by the Federal Power Act, but that such larger producers rarely present a net billing issue. It involves the measurement of power used 6 by a retail customer operating in parallel with the utility.