An Act To Amend the Laws Regarding Distributed Energy Generation and To Eliminate Gross Metering
Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and
Whereas, the Public Utilities Commission has recently changed the rules governing net energy billing in a way that penalizes self-generation; and
Whereas, the costs and complexities of implementing these rule changes are disruptive to consumers; and
Whereas, passage of this Act as emergency legislation will avoid the implementation of the most costly and complex provision of the amended rules; and
Whereas, recent outages of electric power have demonstrated the need for predictable and fair distributed energy generation policy; and
Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, therefore,
Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3209-A, as corrected by RR 2017, c. 1, §32, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:
§ 3209-A. Net energy billing
An eligible customer may participate in net energy billing in accordance with this section.
For each 12-month period beginning after April 30, 2021, the commission by rule must reduce the percentage of an eligible customer's excess energy generation that may be applied against that customer's transmission and distribution bill for the purpose of net energy billing by no more than 10%. During each such year, the reduction in the percentage of an eligible customer's excess energy generation that may be applied against that customer's transmission and distribution bill applies only to customers that apply for a net energy billing arrangement in that 12-month period.
The rules must specify that an eligible customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement before May 1, 2018 may continue with the net energy billing arrangement until April 30, 2033 and that an eligible customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement after April 30, 2018 may continue with that net energy billing arrangement until April 30th of the calendar year that is 15 years from the year in which the customer applied for the net energy billing arrangement.
Rules adopted or amended under this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
Sec. 2. 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, 2020 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 generation resources while supporting equitable treatment of all customers and application of cost causation principles in rate design;
2. Integrate distributed energy generation resources to increase efficiency of the electric grid while reducing costs for all ratepayers;
3. Use capabilities such as advanced 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 of and compensation for small-scale distributed energy resources in the regional markets.
The Public Utilities Commission shall conduct and include in its report 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 consider costs and benefits over a 10-year period and a 25-year period. If uncertainty exists with regard to a future cost or benefit, the commission shall use assumptions for what it considers the most likely higher-value and lower-value scenarios. For any recommendation made in the report, the commission shall quantify or estimate how the recommended action 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 effect of the recommendation compares to the current net energy billing practice in terms of the effect on ratepayers and on the rate at which customer-sited solar photovoltaic installations are occurring in the State.
In considering rate design options, the Public Utilities 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 energy generation resources in this State and on electricity usage by customers with customer-sited solar photovoltaic installations or other distributed energy generation resources.
The Public Utilities Commission shall also examine and report on market-based procurement programs for community solar projects and how such a program can be structured to provide benefits to ratepayers while encouraging community-based solar photovoltaic installations.
At least 60 days before submitting the report under this section to the joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over utilities and energy matters, the Public Utilities Commission shall post the report on its publicly accessible website. Within that period of time, a member of the public may submit to the commission written comments regarding the report. The commission shall submit all comments received with the report to the committee.
The joint standing committee of the Legislature having jurisdiction over utilities and energy matters may report out a bill based on the Public Utilities Commission's recommendations to the Second Regular Session of the 129th Legislature.
Sec. 3. Rules. The Public Utilities Commission shall amend its net energy billing rules before January 1, 2019 to be consistent with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A.
Emergency clause. In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this legislation takes effect when approved.
SUMMARY
This bill requires a net energy billing customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement after April 30, 2018 but before May 1, 2019 to receive 90% of the excess energy generation from an eligible facility to be applied against the customer's transmission and distribution bill, a customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement after April 30, 2019 but before May 1, 2020 to receive 80% of the excess energy generation from an eligible facility to be applied against the customer's transmission and distribution bill and a customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement after April 30, 2020 but before May 1, 2021 to receive 70% of the excess energy generation from an eligible facility to be applied against the customer's transmission and distribution bill. It requires that in each 12-month period after April 30, 2021, the percentage of an eligible customer's excess energy generation that applies to that customer's transmission and distribution bill be reduced by no more than 10% and that any reduction applies only to customers that apply for a net energy billing arrangement in that 12-month period. It specifies that an eligible customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement before May 1, 2018 may continue with the net energy billing arrangement until April 30, 2033 and that an eligible customer that applies for a net energy billing arrangement after April 30, 2018 may continue with that net energy billing arrangement until April 30th of the calendar year that is 15 years from the year in which the customer applied for the net energy billing arrangement.
This bill 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. It limits to 50 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. It requires the Public Utilities Commission to amend its current net energy billing rules before January 1, 2019 to be consistent with the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A.
This bill also requires the Public Utilities Commission to submit a report by January 1, 2020 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 as well as how those costs and benefits compare to any recommendations the commission makes in this report.