Liability Coverage Rule Changes for Home Power Generation in Missouri

The Missouri Public Service Commission is amending its rules to eliminate a requirement that customers generating 10 kilowatts or less of electricity carry liability insurance.

Under rules first adopted last October, customers who generated 10 kilowatts or less of electricity were required to carry at least $100,000 of liability insurance. Customers generating more than 10 kilowatts were to carry more than $1 million of liability insurance.

The Commission has reversed its prior decision by completely removing any insurance requirement for systems of less than 10 kilowatts. Insurance requirements for customers generating more than 10 kilowatts were reduced from $1 million in coverage to at least $100,000 of liability insurance coverage. The new rule does inform potential customer-generators that they may be liable for damages if they are negligent.

The amendment is designed to make it easier for customer-generators to interconnect with the electric grid and offset their energy purchases with their own generation.

Net metering customers (i.e. residential and small business customers) use their own systems to generate a portion or all of their electricity using renewable energy resources such as wind, solarthermal, hydroelectric and photovoltaic cells and panels. Missouri investor-owned electric utilities are required to permit qualified interconnection to customers with systems up to 100 kilowatts in capacity.

Source: Missouri Public Service Commission

Topics Missouri