The City Council has adopted a net-metering policy, effective Oct. 1, that will allow residents to generate their own power, bank it for future use and even sell it at market rate.

Jay Larsen, director of Logan City Light & Power, said solar power is one method of generating renewable energy year-round.

"If they generate excess, we will accumulate that for up to 12 months, and in April of every year, we will pay them the average wholesale rate in that current budget year," he said.

Logan City also will pay for upgraded power meters for participants.

The potential power producers will cover the expense of installing the net meters in new homes or retrofitting them to existing ones, Larsen said. Regular meters cost $65, while net meters are $285.

The policy benefits the city-owned power company as well as its customers, said sponsor and Councilwoman Laraine Swenson.

"The city is paying fair price [to the resident producer], and then the city doesn't have to buy [power] at the top market price when the loads are highest," she said. "The purpose of net metering is to 'incentivize' people to produce their own power, which reduces demand on the city's municipal system."

Swenson said the policy is one of many programs in the works in Logan City as well as throughout the nation.

She predicts that energy prices will eventually drop as alternative methods of producing power are fine-tuned and more widely adopted.

"We're just working ourselves into the mainstream because this is where the world is going. Energy conservation is going to become increasingly important as nonrenewable sources become more scarce," she said.

abrunson@sltrib.com