HB 263-FN - AS INTRODUCED
2023 SESSION
23-0274
10/08
HOUSE BILL 263-FN
SPONSORS: Rep. McWilliams, Merr. 30; Rep. Raynolds, Rock. 39
COMMITTEE: Science, Technology and Energy
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ANALYSIS
This bill requires the department of energy to provide an annual written notice to customer-generators whose production has been credited to providers of electricity, unless those customer-generators obtained certification to be issued class I or class II certificates.
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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Matter which is either (a) all new or (b) repealed and reenacted appears in regular type.
23-0274
10/08
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
In the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Twenty Three
Be it Enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened:
1 New Paragraph; Electric Renewable Portfolio Standard; Definitions. Amend RSA 362-F:2 by inserting after paragraph III the following new paragraph:
IV-a. “Customer-generator” shall mean “eligible customer-generator” as defined in RSA 362-A:1-a, II-b.
2 New Paragraph; Electric Renewable Portfolio Standard; Renewable Energy Certificates. Amend RSA 362-F:6 by inserting after paragraph II-a the following new paragraph:
II-b.(a) Within 30 days of the effective date of this paragraph, and by August 31 of every year thereafter, the department of energy shall provide an annual written notice to customer-generators whose production has been credited to providers of electricity pursuant to paragraph II-a, except for customer-generators who subsequently obtained certification to be issued class I or class II certificates. This notice shall inform the customer-generators that their production has been credited to providers of electricity, and will continue to be credited to providers of electricity unless they obtain certification to be issued class I or class II certificates. This notice shall also inform customer-generators of the options available to them and the consequences of their production being credited to providers of electricity. Finally, this notice shall provide instructions on how customer-generators may obtain certification to be issued class I or class II certificates.
(b) Beginning 30 days after the effective date of this paragraph, the department of energy shall ensure that all persons who apply to interconnect a customer-sited source that will be net metered pursuant to RSA 362-A:9 receive, prior to the time their customer-sited source is interconnected, written notice that their production will be credited to providers of electricity unless they obtain certification to be issued class I or class II certificates. This notice shall inform such applicants of the options available to them and the consequences of their production being credited to providers of electricity. This notice shall also provide instructions on how such applicants may obtain certification to be issued class I or class II certificates.
(c) The department of energy shall prescribe the form of the notices required by subparagraphs (a) and (b), both of which shall prominently include the following language in substantially the following form:
This notice is to inform you that if you do not take affirmative action to have your system certified to create renewable energy certificates (RECs), your generation will automatically be credited to utilities and other retail sellers of electricity (electricity providers). These electricity providers can then use your generation to help meet their renewable portfolio standard (RPS) obligations. This means that the renewable energy you generate will not add any renewable energy to the grid beyond the minimum amount that electricity providers must procure under state law.
You should know that your generation may reduce overall renewable energy generation unless your system is certified to create RECs. This is a consequence of the fact that by generating your own energy you reduce the total amount of energy electricity providers sell, which then reduces the total amount of renewable energy that electricity providers are required to procure under the RPS. If you do not certify your renewable energy production via REC certification all of your generation will also be credited towards that reduced total. As a result, unless your system is certified to create RECs, you will reduce the total amount of renewable energy that electricity providers are required to add to the grid by more than the amount of renewable energy that your system will generate. In other words, unless your system is certified to create RECs, you may cause a net reduction in overall renewable energy generation.
If you have not certified your system to create RECs, any renewable energy that your net-metered system generated since 2012 has automatically been credited to electricity providers. Thus, renewable energy that you generated in the past may not have provided any increase in renewable energy production and may have indirectly served to reduce overall renewable energy generation.
You should know that, according to the federal government, you cannot claim to use the renewable energy that you generate if electricity providers are using it for RPS compliance. This remains true even if you consume some or all of the physical electricity that you generate yourself. This rule is meant to prevent renewable energy double-counting, which could occur if a person claimed to generate and use the same unit of renewable energy that is credited to an electricity provider. Therefore, you may lose the right to claim that you are using renewable energy unless you both: (1) have your system certified to create RECs; and (2) you retain the RECs that you create. If you do not create and retain RECs, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may take regulatory action against you for false advertising if you market your home or business as running on the renewable energy that you generate. Failure to comply with any resulting FTC orders may subject you or your business to civil penalties of up to $10,000 for every day the violation continues.
Having your system certified to create RECs, and retaining those RECs will ensure that the renewable energy you generate will be additional to minimum RPS requirements, and ensure that you can legally claim to use your own renewable energy. Having your system certified to create RECs will also allow you to sell RECs for additional income. However, you should know that you will lose the right to claim that you are using renewable energy if you sell your RECs. Electricity providers may use any RECs that you sell for RPS compliance, which means that the renewable energy you generate will not be additional to minimum RPS requirements. You can find instructions on how to have your system certified to create RECs below.
(d) The department of energy may fulfill its obligation to provide customer-generators with the written notice required by subparagraph (a), and ensure that applicants seeking to interconnect customer-sited sources that will be net metered under RSA 362-A:9 receive the notice required by subparagraph (b), by requiring distribution companies to provide such written notices to customer-generators and applicants in their service territory and by requiring installers of renewable energy systems that are eligible for net metering to provide such written notice to their customers.
3 Effective Date. This act shall take effect 60 days after its passage.
23-0274
12/19/22
HB 263-FN- FISCAL NOTE
AS INTRODUCED
FISCAL IMPACT: [ X ] State [ ] County [ ] Local [ ] None
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| Estimated Increase / (Decrease) | |||
STATE: | FY 2023 | FY 2024 | FY 2025 | FY 2026 |
Appropriation | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Revenue | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
Expenditures | $0 | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase | Indeterminable Increase |
Funding Source: | [ ] General [ ] Education [ ] Highway [ X ] Other - Renewable Energy Fund | |||
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METHODOLOGY:
This bill requires the Department of Energy to provide an annual written notice to customer-generators whose production has been credited to providers of electricity, unless those customer-generators obtained certification to be issued class I or class II certificates.
The Department of Energy indicates this notice requirement can be met by the Department issuing this annual written notice by mail, or the Department can require electric distribution companies to do it, along with requiring installers to provide the same notice to their customers. The Department provided the following information:
In addition, getting this list of specific people who are interconnected and not REC registered will not be an easy undertaking and cannot be guaranteed. There is no shared form of identification, such as a unique identification number between the data available to the Department and the data held by the utility. Matching up these lists and ensuring the accuracy of the list will be a substantial undertaking by both the Department and the electric distribution utilities and would result in an indeterminable increase in expenditures. Based on estimates from the USPS mass mailings, the annual cost to send these notices would be at least $15,000.
It is assumed that any fiscal impact would occur after FY 2023.
AGENCIES CONTACTED:
Department of Energy
| Date | Body | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Feb. 6, 2023 | House | Hearing |
| Feb. 16, 2023 | House | Exec Session |
| Feb. 16, 2023 | House | Floor Vote |
March 16, 2023: Inexpedient to Legislate: MA VV 03/16/2023 HJ 9 P. 59
March 16, 2023: Ought to Pass: MF DV 178-186 03/16/2023 HJ 9 P. 59
Feb. 27, 2023: Committee Report: Without Recommendation 02/16/2023 (Vote ; RC) HC 15 P. 15
Feb. 21, 2023: Retained in Committee
Feb. 9, 2023: Executive Session: 02/16/2023 01:00 pm LOB 302-304
Feb. 1, 2023: Public Hearing: 02/06/2023 03:00 pm LOB 302-304
Feb. 1, 2023: ==CANCELLED== Executive Session: 02/06/2023 02:30 pm LOB 302-304
Jan. 9, 2023: Introduced (in recess of) 01/05/2023 and referred to Science, Technology and Energy HJ 3 P. 9