Bill Text: NH SB262 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relative to customer generators of electric energy.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 6-2)
Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2022-05-27 - Enrolled (in recess of) 05/26/2022 House Journal 14 [SB262 Detail]
Download: New_Hampshire-2022-SB262-Introduced.html
SB 262 - AS INTRODUCED
2022 SESSION
22-2970
10/08
SENATE BILL 262
AN ACT relative to customer generators of electric energy.
SPONSORS: Sen. Avard, Dist 12; Sen. Watters, Dist 4; Sen. Bradley, Dist 3; Sen. Gray, Dist 6; Sen. Giuda, Dist 2; Rep. McGhee, Hills. 27; Rep. Lang, Belk. 4; Rep. Pearl, Merr. 26
COMMITTEE: Energy and Natural Resources
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ANALYSIS
This bill modifies the definition of an eligible customer generator of electric energy under the limited electrical energy producers act, changes the apportionment of net energy metering capacity and net metering group eligibility, and requires the public utilities commission to investigate and report on customer-generator interconnection.
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Explanation: Matter added to current law appears in bold italics.
Matter removed from current law appears [in brackets and struckthrough.]
Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
22-2970
10/08
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Two
AN ACT relative to customer generators of electric energy.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Limited Electrical Energy Producers Act; Definition; Customer Generator. Amend RSA 362-A:1-a, II-b to read as follows:
II-b. "Eligible customer-generator" or "customer-generator" means an electric utility customer who owns, operates, or purchases power from an electrical generating facility either powered by renewable energy or which employs a heat led combined heat and power system, with a total peak generating capacity of up to and including one megawatt or 125 percent of the customer’s average monthly peak electric demand over the past 12 months, if greater than one megawatt, except as provided for a municipal host as defined in paragraph II-c, that is located behind a retail meter on the customer's premises, is interconnected and operates in parallel with the electric grid, and is used to offset the customer's own electricity requirements. Incremental generation added to an existing generation facility, that does not itself qualify for net metering, shall qualify if such incremental generation meets the qualifications of this paragraph and is metered separately from the nonqualifying facility.
2 Net Energy Metering; Apportionment. Amend RSA 362-A:9, I through IV to read as follows:
I. Standard tariffs providing for net energy metering shall be made available to eligible customer-generators by each electric distribution utility in conformance with net metering rules adopted and orders issued by the commission. Each net energy metering tariff shall be identical, with respect to rates, rate structure, and charges, to the tariff under which a customer-generator would otherwise take default generation supply service from the distribution utility. Such tariffs shall be available on a first-come, first-served basis within each electric utility service area under the jurisdiction of the commission until such time as the total rated generating capacity owned or operated by eligible customer-generators totals a number equal to 100 megawatts, with 50 megawatts of the 100 megawatts allocated to the 4 electric distribution utilities that were subject to the commission's jurisdiction in 2010 multiplied by each such utility's percentage share of the total 2010 annual coincident peak energy demand distributed by those 4 utilities, and 50 megawatts of the 100 megawatts allocated to the state's 3 investor-owned electric distribution utilities, multiplied by each such utility's percentage share of the total 2010 annual coincident peak energy demand distributed by those 3 utilities, all to be determined by the commission and to be utilized by eligible customer-generators located within each such utilities' service territory. Eighty percent of each utility's share of the 50 megawatts shall be apportioned to facilities with a total generating capacity of not more than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts and 20 percent to facilities with a total generating capacity in excess of [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts, but no greater than one megawatt. The 50 megawatts of capacity shall be made available to eligible customer-generators until such time as commission approved alternative net metering tariffs approved by the commission become available. No more than 4 megawatts of such total rated generating capacity shall be from a combined heat and power system as defined in RSA 362-A:1-a, I-d.
I-a. No person, owner, developer, installer of an eligible customer-generator facility, business organization, or any subsidiary thereof, shall reserve capacity space in the net metering interconnection queue of more than 20 percent of the total net metering utility-specific allocation pursuant to this section, and the creation of multiple business organizations, including a person, as defined in RSA 366:1, I, by the same shall not defeat this requirement. On a weekly basis each utility shall make public on its website its total net metering allocation, its reserved net metering capacity, and its installed and operating net metering capacity. For project applications of greater than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts, each utility net metering interconnection queue application shall include a certification of compliance with the 20 percent requirement, all persons involved in such an application shall sign the certification of compliance, and no application shall be processed where one or more persons involved in the application did not sign the certification of compliance.
II. Competitive electricity suppliers registered under RSA 374-F:7 and municipal or county aggregators under RSA 53-E may determine the terms, conditions, and prices under which they agree to provide generation supply to and credit, as an offset to supply, or purchase the generation output exported to the distribution grid from eligible customer-generators. The commission may require appropriate disclosure of such terms, conditions, and prices or credits. Such output shall be accounted for as a reduction to the customer-generators' electricity supplier's wholesale load obligation for energy supply as a load service entity, net of any applicable line loss adjustments, as approved by the commission. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed as limiting or otherwise interfering with the provisions or authority for municipal or county aggregators under RSA 53-E, including, but not limited to, the terms and conditions for net metering.
III. Metering shall be done in accordance with normal metering practices. A single net meter that shows the customer's net energy usage by measuring both the inflow and outflow of electricity internally shall be the extent of metering that is required at facilities with a total peak generating capacity of not more than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts. A bi-directional metering system that records the total amount of electricity that flows in each direction from the customer premises, either instantaneously or over intervals of an hour or less, shall be required at facilities with a total peak generating capacity of more than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts. Customer-generators shall not be required to pay for the installation of net meters, but shall pay for the installation of all bi-directional metering systems as outlined in utility interconnection tariffs or rules.
IV.(a) For facilities with a total peak generating capacity of not more than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts, when billing a customer-generator under a net energy metering tariff that is not time-based, the utility shall apply the customer's net energy usage when calculating all charges that are based on kilowatt hour usage. Customer net energy usage shall equal the kilowatt hours supplied to the customer over the electric distribution system minus the kilowatt hours generated by the customer-generator and fed into the electric distribution system over a billing period.
(b ) For facilities with a total peak generating capacity of more than [100 kilowatts] 500 kilowatts, but not more than one megawatt, the customer-generator shall pay all applicable charges on all kilowatt hours supplied to the customer over the electric distribution system, less a credit on default service charges equal to the metered energy generated by the customer-generator and fed into the electric distribution system over a billing period.
(c) For facilities with a total peak generating capacity of greater than one megawatt, the customer-generator shall pay all applicable charges on all kilowatt hours supplied to the customer over the electric distribution system, less an avoided cost credit equal to the metered energy generated by the customer-generator and fed into the electric distribution system over a billing period.
IV-a.(a) Eligibility for the net metering tariff under this section for customer generators larger than 100 kilowatts with an in-service date after January 1, 2022 and not acting as a group net metering host, must consume the majority of the load on site, on an annual basis.
(b) On-site consumption requirements under this section shall not apply to low and moderate income customers as defined in administrative rules of the public utilities commission in PUC 902.21.
3 Net Energy Metering; Group Host Requirements. Amend RSA 362-A:9, XIV(a) to read as follows:
XIV.(a) A customer-generator with a total peak generating capacity of not more than one megawatt may elect to become a group host for the purpose of reducing or otherwise controlling the energy costs of a group of customers [who are not customer-generators]. The group of customers shall be located within the service territory of the same electric distribution utility as the host. The host shall provide a list of the group members to the commission and the electric distribution utility and shall certify that all members of the group have executed an agreement with the host regarding the utilization of kilowatt hours produced by the eligible facility and that the total historic annual load of the group members together with the host exceeds the projected annual output of the host's facility. The department shall verify that these group requirements have been met and shall register the group host. The department shall establish the process for registering hosts, including periodic re-registration, and the process by which changes in membership are allowed and administered. Net metering tariffs under this section shall not be made available to a customer-generator group host until such host is registered by the department.
4 New Paragraph; Net Energy Metering; Avoided Cost Credit. Amend RSA 362-A:9 by inserting after paragraph XIX the following new paragraph:
XX.(a) No later than 30 days after the effective date of this paragraph, the commission shall initiate a new proceeding to determine whether to modify the credit specified in subparagraph IV(c). The commission may consider the findings of studies or investigations under docket DE 16-576 and credit methodologies used in other states for systems of similar size.
(b) The commission shall issue an order approving or adopting a credit rate within 10 months of the effective date of this paragraph.
5 New Section; Customer-generator Interconnection; Commission Investigation; Report. Amend RSA 362-A by inserting after section 9 the following new section:
362-A:10 Customer-generator Interconnection; Commission Investigation; Report.
I. Within 30 days of the effective date of this section, the commission shall initiate a proceeding to investigate modification of the rules of the public utilities commission in PUC 903.01(e) to eliminate barriers to cost effective, predictable, and timely processes for customer-generators to interconnect with the state’s electric distribution system. In so doing, the commission shall consult with electric distribution utilities, distributed generation project developers, the department of energy, and any person or entity the commission deems relevant to its study.
II. The commission’s investigative proceeding shall specifically consider the following:
(a) How to create reasonable engineering standards for interconnection, with special consideration given to established best practices, including those set out in the Interstate Renewable Energy Council’s (IREC) 2019 Model Interconnection Procedures.
(b) How to ensure timeliness of interconnection studies, so the interconnection study process does create undue uncertainty in project development.
(c) Where grid modernization upgrades may be preferred to prepare a circuit for a distributed generation project, how to share the costs between project developer and ratepayers who will also benefit from the increased reliability associated with the upgrades.
(d) Whether it is appropriate to establish an interconnection working group convened at the commission or department of energy to regularly assess if interconnection standards need modification to maintain reliability.
(e) Any other topic the commission reasonably believes it should consider in order to diligently conduct the proceeding.
III. The commission shall report its findings and recommendations to the standing committees of the house of representatives and senate with jurisdiction over energy and utility matters no later than one year after initiating the proceeding. The report shall identify ways any recommended statutory changes can reduce barriers to cost effective, predictable, and timely processes for customer generators to interconnect with the state’s electric distribution system.
6 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
