Freeburg committee: net-metering cap to rise to 25 kW; village to explore Socket Fiber

Trustee James (Mike) Blaies reported on the Electric Committee meeting held Jan. 14 and summarized several items for the full board. Head Lineman Max Sallman said a dead tree knocked down a pole on St. Clair Court; crews replaced it and one customer experienced a short outage.

Blaies and Village Administrator Matt Trout summarized an IMEA webinar on rooftop solar and net metering: Trout said the village's current net-metering cap of 10 kW will increase to 25 kW on June 1, 2026, and the village cannot lawfully prohibit systems under that threshold; Trout will work on revising the village ordinance to reflect the change.

The committee also discussed what would be required to bring in Socket Fiber; the board agreed to start initial discussions with the company. Committee members flagged a planned breaker replacement (a planned outage) and training for two new employees scheduled around May as operational items to coordinate with customers.