If you’re a Dominion Energy net metering customer in Virginia, you’ve probably received an email recently from Dominion asking you to choose whether you would like an Interval Data Recorder (IDR) net meter or if you want to keep your Automated Meter Reading (AMR) bi-directional meter. Wondering what this is about and what to do?
The first thing it’s important to know is that whether you switch to the IDR meter or keep your AMR meter, there will be no difference in your solar production, billing amount, or general daily life. So if you ignore the email, Dominion will leave your current AMR bi-directional meter in place and all will be fine.
Below are examples of the Dominion bills for our fictional friend Kate. First, you’ll see the bill for the AMR meter, which should look the same as the bill you currently receive. It only gives you your total kWh, which is the result of Dominion’s calculation of the number of kWh delivered to you from the grid minus the number of kWh you produced from your solar.
Next, we have the bill for the IDR meter. It’s the same style as the AMI (Smart Meter) bill, so it says AMI but it will look the same as the IDR meter bill. You can see it shows more detail including the number of kWh delivered from the grid to you (blue arrow), and the number of kWh you produced (which they call received because it was received by the grid from your solar production–green arrow). It also shows the total Kwh, the same as the AMR bill, which is the delta between those two numbers.
Your Ipsun App will also show you how many kWh you produced for the month, so if you want a way to compare Dominion’s numbers with your own data, then the IDR is for you. We like the option of the IDR meter because we feel the more detail in your bill the better, but this decision is yours to make.
To have an IDR meter installed at no cost, just reply to the email Dominion sent you and ask for a switch. Unfortunately, we can’t request this switch for you, it’s a decision you must make directly with Dominion.
However, if you like the more basic overview showing just the total kWh that you’re being billed for, then stick with your AMR meter. This is what will happen if you ignore their email, so no action is required on your part to stick with the status quo.
Please feel free to call us at 703-249-6594 or contact us below with questions!
