Revision: Nov. 15, 2019, 9:47 a.m.
SB 13 - AS INTRODUCED
2019 SESSION
19-0837
10/04
SENATE BILL 13
AN ACT relative to limited electrical energy producers and net energy metering.
SPONSORS: Sen. Fuller Clark, Dist 21; Sen. Chandley, Dist 11; Sen. Sherman, Dist 24; Sen. Hennessey, Dist 5; Sen. Rosenwald, Dist 13; Sen. Levesque, Dist 12; Rep. Balch, Hills. 38; Rep. Cali-Pitts, Rock. 30; Rep. Somssich, Rock. 27; Rep. McGhee, Hills. 40
COMMITTEE: Energy and Natural Resources
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ANALYSIS
This bill increases the generating and discharge capacity of eligible customer generators under the limited electrical energy producers act and adds qualifying storage systems. The bill modifies the requirements for purchase of output of electric energy by a limited producer of electricity. The bill adds requirements for the transition of tariffs applicable to certain customer-generators under net energy metering. The bill also clarifies the definition of eligible customer-generator for purposes of the utility property tax.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
19-0837
10/04
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Nineteen
AN ACT relative to limited electrical energy producers and net energy metering.
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 Definition; Eligible 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, or who owns, operates, or purchases power from a qualifying storage system, with a total peak generating and discharge capacity of [up to and including one megawatt] less than 5 megawatts, 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 in the first instance. Where generating and storage facilities are co-located behind a single retail meter the total peak generating and discharge capacity shall be determined as the maximum capacity that the combined facilities are approved and configured to export to the distribution grid at any one time. 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 Definition; Limited Producer. Amend RSA 362-A:1-a, III to read as follows:
III. "Limited producer" or "limited electrical energy producer" means a qualifying small power producer, a qualifying storage system, or a qualifying cogenerator, with a total generating or discharge capacity of [not more] less than 5 megawatts.
3 New Paragraph; Definition; Qualifying Storage System. Amend RSA 362-A:1-a by inserting after paragraph IX the following new paragraph:
IX-a. "Qualifying storage system” means a facility located behind a retail meter that stores electrical energy that is otherwise produced by a generator, by electrical, chemical, mechanical, or thermal means, for discharge at a later time, which can be used to reduce peak loads, compensate for variability in renewable energy production, or provide other grid services, and which does not participate in any wholesale energy markets administered by ISO New England as a registered asset or otherwise.
4 Limited Electrical Energy Producers Act; Purchase of Output by Private Sector. RSA 362-A:2-a is repealed and reenacted to read as follows:
362-A:2-a Purchase of Output by Private Sector.
I. A limited producer of electrical energy shall have the authority to sell its produced electrical energy to one or more purchasers other than the franchise electric utility. Such purchaser may be any electricity supplier or retail electricity customer qualified to do business in New Hampshire. The commission shall establish procedures to authorize limited producers, including eligible customer-generators, to sell electricity at retail, either directly or indirectly through an electricity supplier, within a single electric distribution utility franchise area where the purchasers of electricity from such limited producers shall not be charged a transmission tariff or rate for such sales, or the purchaser or limited producer receives credit for avoided transmission charges as the commission otherwise determines, if the retail sale of such electricity reduces the retail load measured at the wholesale meter point between the distribution system and transmission facilities under federal jurisdiction such that transmission charges allocated to the distribution utility are reduced from what they otherwise would be absent the electricity produced behind retail meters. Direct retail sales of electricity across the distribution grid shall be facilitated and accounted for by competitive electricity suppliers registered with the commission under RSA 374-F:7, by municipal or county aggregations under RSA 53-E that are load serving entities, or by utility sponsored tariffs that may be offered in conjunction with default service. The public utilities commission shall establish such procedures, requirements, and conditions concerning retail sales of electricity pursuant to this section that it deems necessary to:
(a) Protect parties against excessive liability or undue risk; or
(b) Avoid substantial uncompensated cost or risk to the electric utility in whose franchise area the sales takes place; or
(c) Be consistent with the public good.
II. Purchasers of power from limited producers shall pay for the delivery of such power through tariffs, charges, and rates that are generally applicable to the customer’s rate class, with the exception of default energy service if not applicable and transmission charges if not applicable pursuant to paragraph I.
III. Public utilities that distribute electricity under the jurisdiction of the commission shall not report the production of electricity from behind or across retail electricity meters by limited producers, including customer-generators, to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) jurisdictional transmission utilities for load reconstitution purposes or otherwise unless ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction, provided that such limited producer is not registered as a generator or an asset with ISO New England and is thus not authorized to participate in FERC jurisdictional wholesale energy markets. Instead such electricity production on the distribution grid shall be treated as load reducers behind the wholesale meter point for purposes of ISO New England wholesale energy markets and transmission services.
IV. Limited producers that first became operational before July 1, 2019 and that have outstanding capacity commitments in the forward capacity market administered by ISO New England may elect to transition to retail sales of electricity on the distribution grid and be treated as a retail load reducer for purposes of wholesale energy markets provided that they undertake the process of retiring from participation in wholesale energy markets administered by ISO New England by:
(a) Ceasing participation in such energy markets such as by receipt of payments for energy generation;
(b) Transferring to the limited producer’s load serving entity any payments received or due from ISO New England that are attributable to fulfillment of the limited producer’s capacity commitments until such capacity commitments are fulfilled or otherwise retired; and
(c) Completing the process of retiring from wholesale energy and capacity markets administered by ISO New England once any such capacity commitments that were outstanding at the time the limited producer commenced retail electricity sales are fulfilled or otherwise retired. 5 Net Energy Metering; Municipal or County Aggregators of Electric Customers Added. Amend RSA 362-A:9, II to read as follows:
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 [net] the generation output exported to the distribution grid from eligible customer-generators. Such output shall be accounted for as an offset to the electricity supplier’s wholesale load obligation for energy supply as a load serving entity, net of any applicable line loss adjustments, as approved by the commission. By default, in the absence of electricity supplier contract terms and conditions that provide otherwise, generation output to the distribution grid by customer-generators of an electricity supplier shall be credited on the bill at 90 percent of the supplier’s energy service charge applicable to that customer during the time period in which such output occurs.
6 Net Energy Metering; Net Effects. Amend RSA 362-A:9, VII to read as follows:
VII. A distribution utility may perform an annual calculation to determine the net effect this section had on its default service and distribution revenues and expenses in the prior calendar year. The method of performing the calculation and applying the results, as well as a reconciliation mechanism to collect or credit any such net effects with appropriate carrying charges and credits applied, shall be determined by the commission. For the purposes of accounting for any exports to the distribution grid by customer-generators, such exports shall be treated as offsets or reductions to retail load, within the same billing or rate time period, resulting in a reduction of the wholesale load obligation for the load serving entity that serves the customer-generator. The load serving entity is the entity that is recognized by ISO New England as serving portions of retail load from the wholesale electricity markets, which may be the default energy service provider or other electricity suppliers under RSA 374-F. A generator with a rated electricity production capacity of less than 5 megawatts that first became operational before July 1, 2019 and that has outstanding capacity commitments in the forward capacity market administered by ISO New England may elect to become a customer-generator and be treated as a retail load reducer provided that they undertake the process of retiring from participation in wholesale energy markets administered by ISO New England by:
(a) Ceasing participation in such energy markets such as by receipt of payments for energy generation;
(b) Transferring to the generator’s load serving entity, which may be the electric distribution utility providing default energy service, any payments received or due from ISO New England that are attributable to fulfillment of the generator’s capacity commitment until such capacity commitments are fulfilled or otherwise retired; and
(c) Completing the process of retiring from wholesale energy and capacity markets administered by ISO New England once any such capacity commitments that were outstanding at the time the generator became a customer-generator participating in net metering are fulfilled or otherwise retired.
7 New Section; Net Energy Metering; Group Hosts. Amend RSA 362-A:9, XIV by inserting after subparagraph (c) the following new subparagraph:
(d)(1) A group host with a peak generating capacity of more than one megawatt that has group members other than the host itself and affiliates of the host, as that term is defined in RSA 421-B:1-102 (2), shall be required to include in its group one or more customers that take or use as an offset to their load not less than 5 percent of the host’s net exports to the grid over the course of each of the first 5 years of operation from one or more of the following types of customers:
(A) Customers from a non-residential rate class that house residents or households where at least a majority are low-income, elderly, or persons with disabilities;
(B) Customers that are nonprofit organizations pursuant to RSA 292, charitable organizations pursuant to RSA 7:21, or governmental entities, including the state, its public agencies, subdivisions, and instrumentalities such as housing authorities and regional planning commissions; or
(C) Aggregations of residential customers where at least a majority of households are low-income, elderly, or persons with disabilities.
(2) If the requirement in subparagraph (1) is not met in any of the first 5 years of operation that include a full 12 months of operation, then the group host shall make an alternative compliance payment to the commission in the amount of $0.001/kWh, with their annual report, for their net exports to the grid for each year this requirement is not met. The commission shall allocate any such funds received as it determines serves the public interest for use in the low-income electric assistance program, income eligible energy efficiency programs, and programs that benefit low-moderate income residential customers pursuant to RSA 362-F:10, X including support for low-moderate income community solar projects. For the purposes of this subparagraph “low-income” means household or family income that is likely to be in the bottom 20 percent of household or family income for New Hampshire or within the definition of “low-income” as otherwise defined and used in New Hampshire law to qualify a person, family, or household as low-income, as specified by the commission, “elderly” means persons age 65 and older, and “persons with disabilities” means persons as defined by RSA 275-C:1, II.
8 Net Energy Metering; Transition of Tariffs. Amend RSA 362-A:9, XV to read as follows:
XV. Standard tariffs that are available to eligible customer-generators under this section shall terminate on December 31, 2040 and such customer-generators shall transition to tariffs that are in effect at that time. Alternative tariffs shall be applicable and have such grandfathering provisions as may be approved or adopted by the commission under this section. Customer-generators with a total peak generating capacity of more than one megawatt and less than 5 megawatts that are eligible for net metering before the commission adopts tariffs specifically for customer-generators with a generating capacity of more than one megawatt shall:
(a) Be eligible to receive the export credit rate approved by the commission in Order No. 26,029 (DE 16-576) for one megawatt sized customer-generators on default service, namely, the applicable default energy service rate, minus any rate component for:
(1) Compliance with the electric renewable portfolio standard, RSA 362-F, net of prior period reconciliations for such; and
(2) Administrative costs of the electric distribution utility allocated to default energy service, net of prior period reconciliations for such, both as determined by the commission;
(b) Be eligible to receive, on a prospective basis after the commission has approved tariffs for such, credit for actual avoided wholesale transmission charges attributable to exports to the distribution grid during time periods when transmission charges are incurred by the distribution utility that reduce load at the meter point between the distribution and transmission grid and the resulting calculation of load used for apportioning such wholesale transmission charges. Such credit shall be based on measurement of exports at the retail meter point without additional credit for avoided line losses between the wholesale and retail meter points to provide a sharing of the benefit of reduced transmission charges from net metering with other ratepayers who do not participate in net metering; and
(c) Be grandfathered by the terms of currently applicable tariff for customer-generators with a total peak generating capacity of one megawatt if the customer-generator’s electrical generating facility or qualified storage system first becomes operational on or after July 1, 2019; and
(d) Not be grandfathered by the terms of currently applicable tariff and shall instead transition to such new tariffs specifically approved by the commission for customer-generators with a total peak generating capacity of more than one megawatt if the customer-generator’s electrical generating facility or qualified storage system first became operational before July 1, 2019.
9 New Section; Electric Renewable Portfolio Standard; Exclusion to Amount of Electricity Supplied. Amend RSA 362-F by inserting after section 3 the following new section:
362-F:3-a Exclusions to the Amount of Electricity Supplied. To the extent that a provider of electricity has revenue grade meter data on the quantity of exports to the grid from a qualifying storage system as defined in RSA 362-A:1-a that is charged from the grid, such amounts may be deducted from the calculation of electricity supplied by the provider to its end-use customers for the applicable year for purposes of compliance with RSA 362-F:3.
10 Utility Property Tax; Exclusion From Definition of Utility Property. Amend RSA 83-F:1, V(d) to read as follows:
(d) The electrical generation, production, storage, and supply equipment of an "eligible customer-generator" as defined in RSA 362-A:1-a, II-b, and of a “limited producer” as defined in RSA 362-A:1-a, III if selling at retail under RSA 362-A:2-a, for facilities with a rated electricity production capacity of up to and including one megawatt, and for facilities with a rated electricity production capacity of more than megawatt and less than 5 megawatts if the facility first becomes operational on or after July 1, 2019;
11 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.