‘An Act To Modernize Rates for Small-scale Distributed Generation’
| SP0529 LD 1504 |
Session - 128th Maine Legislature C "A", Filing Number S-276, Sponsored by
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LR 1367 Item 2 |
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| Bill Tracking, Additional Documents | Chamber Status | ||
Amend the bill by striking out the title and substituting the following:
‘An Act To Modernize Rates for Small-scale Distributed Generation’
Amend the bill by striking out everything after the enacting clause and before the summary and inserting the following:
‘Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3209, sub-§3, as enacted by PL 1997, c. 316, §3, is amended to read:
Sec. 2. 35-A MRSA §3209-A, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 262, §1, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:
§ 3209-A. Net energy billing
An eligible customer may elect net energy billing for the customer's accounts or meters in accordance with this section.
Sec. 3. Report. The Public Utilities Commission shall submit a report to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over utilities and energy matters by January 1, 2021 that includes recommendations on how to transition from net energy billing as governed by the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A to time-of-use rates, market-based rates or other rate designs. The commission shall submit information in its report on how its recommendations:
1. Promote distributed energy resources while supporting equitable treatment of all customers and application of cost causation principles in rate design;
2. Integrate distributed energy resources to increase efficiency of the electric grid while reducing costs for all ratepayers;
3. Use the capabilities of advance metering investments by transmission and distribution utilities to track exports to the grid and usage and to provide actionable price signals to all customers, including those with distributed energy resources; and
4. Encourage integration and compensation for small-scale distributed energy resources in the regional markets.
The Public Utilities Commission shall conduct an analysis of the costs and benefits to ratepayers from net energy billing in an adjudicatory proceeding. The analysis must include all identifiable costs and benefits for net energy billing participants and nonparticipants, including but not limited to the costs and benefits described in Public Law 2013, chapter 562, section 2. The analysis must at a minimum look at costs and benefits over a 10-year period and a 25-year period. Where uncertainty exists with regard to a future cost or benefit, the commission shall use assumptions for what it considers the most likely higher and lower value scenarios. For any recommendation made in the report, the commission shall quantify or estimate how the recommendation would increase or decrease costs to ratepayers over both the short term and the long term and how it is likely to affect solar installations. The commission shall address how the recommendation compares to the current net energy billing practice in terms of ratepayer impacts and the rate at which customer-sited solar photovoltaic installations are occurring in the State.
In looking at rate design options, the commission, in consultation with solar installers, transmission and distribution utilities, the Governor's Energy Office and the Public Advocate, shall compile the best available data on the energy production from customer-sited solar photovoltaic installations or other distributed generation resources in this State and on electricity usage by customers with customer-sited solar photovoltaic installations or other distributed generation resources.
The joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over utilities and energy matters may report out legislation based on the recommendations to the First Regular Session of the 130th Legislature.
Sec. 4. Rule. The Public Utilities Commission shall amend its net energy billing rule before January 1, 2018 to be consistent with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A.’
summary
This amendment is the majority report of the committee, and it replaces the bill. It does the following regarding net energy billing:
1. It requires a net energy billing customer to receive 100% of the net energy of an eligible facility for the customer's transmission and distribution bill until December 31, 2021;
2. It prohibits a transmission and distribution utility from requiring a customer to meter the gross output of an eligible facility in order to participate in net energy billing;
3. It limits to 200 the number of eligible customers that may participate in a single shared interest in an eligible facility or the number of meters associated with a single shared interest, except in the service territory of a transmission and distribution utility located in an area administered by the independent system administrator for northern Maine; and
4. It requires the Public Utilities Commission to amend its current net energy billing rules before January 1, 2018 to be consistent with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A.
This amendment also requires the Public Utilities Commission to submit a report by January 1, 2021 that includes recommendations on how to transition from net energy billing to time-of-use rates, market-based rates or other rate design options. In its report, the commission must include information regarding an analysis of costs and benefits of net energy billing, which it is required to conduct in an adjudicatory proceeding, as well as how those costs and benefits compare to any recommendations the commission makes in this report.