The history of net metering comes out of the fact that for many years, smart meters for electricity were very expensive, and not widely deployed. As such, net

The history of net metering comes out of the fact that for many years, smart meters for electricity were very expensive, and not widely deployed. As such, net metering was a natural solution to the billing problem. A user who over-produced for their needs would just run the meter backwards during sunny days, and forwards at night, creating a net metering situation. It's only with Smart Meters that the utilities can accurately measure per-house production and consumption separately. It's certainly possible to create new billing plans that take advantage of the Smart Meters, but with the capital nature of solar investments, there's a lot of legacy installs to deal with, and those people get angry when they deal they signed up for is changed without grandfathering them into the old way.