Missouri Raises Threshold for Home Power Generation Liability Coverage

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

Under rules 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.

Now, those generating less than 10 kilowatts are exempt from the liability insurance requirement; customers generating more than 10 kilowatts must have at least $100,000 of liability coverage. Potential customer-generators still may be liable for damages if they are negligent.

The amended rules are intended 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.