Bill Text: AZ HCR2032 | 2014 | Fifty-first Legislature 2nd Regular | Introduced
Bill Title: Net metering; electric utilities
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-13 - Referred to House EENR Committee [HCR2032 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2014-HCR2032-Introduced.html
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REFERENCE TITLE: net metering; electric utilities |
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State of Arizona House of Representatives Fifty-first Legislature Second Regular Session 2014
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HCR 2032 |
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Introduced by Representatives Campbell, Gallego: Larkin, Otondo, Wheeler
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A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the constitution of Arizona; amending article XV, Constitution of Arizona, by adding section 18; providing for the delayed repeal of article XV, section 18, Constitution of Arizona; relating to net metering.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Arizona, the Senate concurring:
1. Article XV, Constitution of Arizona, is proposed to be amended by adding section 18 as follows if approved by the voters and on proclamation of the Governor:
18. Net metering; electric utilities; delayed repeal; definitions
Section 20. A. An electric utility:
1. Shall interconnect with any retail customer with a net metering facility in the electric utility's service territory.
2. Shall not limit the size of a net metering facility.
B. Metering and charges shall comply with the following:
1. Any meter that is installed on net metering facilities after the effective date of this section shall be capable of registering and accumulating the kilowatt‑hours of electricity flowing in both directions in each billing period.
2. Net metering shall be assessed on a nondiscriminatory basis.
3. The electric utility shall not charge a net metering customer any additional fees or charges or impose any equipment or other requirements unless the same is imposed on customers in the same rate class that the net metering customer would qualify for if the net metering customer did not have generation equipment.
C. Billing for net metering shall comply with the following:
1. The electric utility shall credit the customer at the full retail rate for each kilowatt‑hour of electricity produced by the net metering facility.
2. On a monthly basis, the net metering customer shall be billed or credited based on the rates applicable under the customer's currently effective standard rate schedule and any appropriate rider schedules.
3. The billing period for net metering will be the same as the billing period under the customer's applicable start rate schedule.
4. If the kilowatt‑hours supplied by the electric utility exceed the kilowatt‑hours that are generated by the net metering facility and delivered back to the electric utility during the billing period, the customer shall be billed for the net kilowatt‑hours supplied by the electric utility in accordance with the rates and charges under the customer's standard rate schedule.
5. If the electricity generated by the net metering customer exceeds the electricity supplied by the electric utility in the billing period, the customer shall be credited during the next billing period for the excess kilowatt‑hours generated.
6. Customers taking service under the time‑of‑use rates who are to receive credit in a subsequent billing period for excess kilowatt‑hours generated shall receive such credit during the next billing period during the on-peak or off‑peak periods corresponding to the on-peak or off‑peak periods in which the kilowatt‑hours were generated by the customer.
7. Once each calendar year the electric utility shall issue a check or billing credit to the net metering customer for the balance of any credit due in excess of amounts owed by the customer to the electric utility. The payment for any remaining credits shall be at the electric utility's avoided cost. The avoided cost shall be clearly labeled in the electric utility's net metering tariff.
D. The net metering tariff:
1. Shall specify standard rates for annual purchases of remaining credits from net metering facilities.
2. Shall not be increased more than ten per cent from the previous tariff increase.
E. This section is repealed from and after December 31, 2024.
F. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Avoided cost" means the incremental costs to an electric utility for electric energy or capacity, or both, which, but for the purchase from the net metering facility, the utility would generate itself or purchase from another source.
2. "Biogas" means gases that are derived from:
(a) Plant-derived organic matter.
(b) Agricultural food and feed matter.
(c) Wood wastes.
(d) Aquatic plants.
(e) Animal wastes.
(f) Vegetative wastes.
(g) Waste treatment facilities using anaerobic digestion.
(h) Municipal solid waste through:
(i) A digester process.
(ii) An oxidation process.
(iii) Other gasification process.
3. "Biomass" means any raw or processed plant‑derived organic matter available on a renewable basis, including:
(a) Dedicated energy crops and trees.
(b) Agricultural food and feed crops.
(c) Agricultural crop wastes and residues.
(d) Wood wastes and residues, including:
(i) Landscape waste.
(ii) Right-of-way tree trimmings.
(iii) Small diameter forest thinnings that are twelve inches in diameter or less.
(e) Dead and downed forest products.
(f) Aquatic plants.
(g) Animal wastes.
(h) Other vegetative waste materials.
(i) Nonhazardous plant matter waste material that is segregated from other waste.
(j) Forest-related resources such as:
(i) Harvesting and mill residue.
(ii) Precommercial thinnings.
(iii) Slash.
(iv) Brush.
(k) Miscellaneous waste such as:
(i) Waste pallets.
(ii) Crates.
(iii) Dunnage.
(l) Recycled paper fibers that are no longer suitable for recycled paper production, but not including:
(i) Painted, treated or pressurized wood.
(ii) Wood contaminated with plastics or metals.
(iii) Tires.
(iv) Recyclable postconsumer waste paper.
4. "Combined heat and power" or "CHP" means a system that generates electricity and useful thermal energy in a single, integrated system such that the useful power output of the facility plus one-half the useful thermal energy output during any twelve month period must be no less than forty‑two and one‑half per cent of the total energy input of fuel to the facility.
5. "Electric utility" or "utility" means an electric distribution company that constructs, operates and maintains the electrical distribution system for the receipt and delivery of power.
6. "Electric utility customer" or "customer" means an end‑use retail customer served under a utility's rate schedule.
7. "Fuel cell" means a device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel directly into electricity without intermediate combustion or thermal cycles. The source of the chemical reaction must be derived from renewable resources.
8. "Geothermal" means heat from within the earth's surface.
9. "Hydroelectric" means the kinetic energy derived from moving water.
10. "Net metering" means service to an electric utility customer under which electric energy generated by or on behalf of that electric utility customer from a net metering facility and delivered to the utility's local distribution facilities may be used to offset electric energy provided by the electric utility to the electric utility customer during the applicable billing period.
11. "Net metering customer" means any Arizona customer who chooses to take electric service by net metering and under the net metering tariff prescribed by subsection D of this section.
12. "Net Metering Facility" means a facility for the production of electricity that meets all of the following:
(a) Is operated by or on behalf of a net metering customer and is located on the net metering customer's premises.
(b) Is intended primarily to provide part or all of the net metering customer's requirements for electricity.
(c) Uses renewable resources, a fuel cell or CHP to generate electricity.
(d) Has a generating capacity less than or equal to one hundred twenty‑five per cent of the net metering customer's total connected load, or in the absence of customer load data, capacity less than or equal to the customer's electric service drop capacity.
(e) Is interconnected with and can operate in parallel and in phase with an electric utility's existing distribution system.
13. "Renewable resources" means natural resources that can be replenished by natural processes, including:
(a) Biogas.
(b) Biomass.
(c) Geothermal.
(d) Hydroelectric.
(e) Solar.
(f) Wind.
14. "Solar" means radiation or heat from the Earth's sun that produces electricity from a device or system designed for that purpose.
15. "Wind" means energy derived from wind movement across the earth's surface that produces electricity from a device or system designed for that purpose.
2. The Secretary of State shall submit this proposition to the voters at the next general election as provided by article XXI, Constitution of Arizona.
