AN ACT CONCERNING VIRTUAL NET METERING.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. Subsection (a) of section 16-1 of the 2010 supplement to the general statutes is amended by adding subdivisions (52) to (57), inclusive, as follows (Effective from passage):

(NEW) (52) "Beneficial account" means affordable housing, as defined in section 8-39a, or an in-state municipal retail end user of an electric distribution company designated by a customer host in the same electric distribution company's service area to receive virtual net metering credits from a virtual net metering facility;

(NEW) (53) "Customer host" means an in-state retail end user of an electric distribution company that owns a virtual net metering facility and participates in virtual net metering;

(NEW) (54) "Unassigned virtual net metering credit" means in any given electric distribution company monthly billing period, a virtual net metering credit that remains after both the customer host and beneficial account have been billed for zero kilowatt hours through virtual net metering;

(NEW) (55) "Virtual net metering" means the process of combining the electric meter readings and billings, including any virtual net metering credits, for a customer host and a beneficial account through an electric distribution company billing process;

(NEW) (56) "Virtual net metering credit" means a credit equal to the retail cost per kilowatt hour the customer host may have otherwise been charged for each kilowatt hour produced by a virtual net metering facility that exceeds the total amount of electricity used during an electric distribution company monthly billing period;

(NEW) (57) "Virtual net metering facility" means a Class I renewable energy source, as defined in section 16-1, that: (A) is served by an electric distribution company, owned by a customer host and serves the electricity needs of the customer host and no more than five beneficial accounts; (B) is within the same electric distribution company service territory as the customer host and its beneficial accounts; and (C) has a nameplate capacity rating of two megawatts or less.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) Each electric distribution company shall provide virtual net metering to its customers and shall make any necessary interconnections for a virtual net metering facility. Upon request by a customer host, to implement the provisions of this section, an electric distribution company shall install metering equipment, if necessary. For each customer host, such metering equipment shall (1) measure electricity consumed from the electric distribution company's facilities; (2) deduct the amount of electricity produced but not consumed; and (3) register, for each monthly billing period, the net amount of electricity produced and, if applicable, consumed. If, in a given monthly billing period, a customer host supplies more electricity to the electric distribution system than the electric distribution company delivers to the customer host, the electric distribution company shall bill the customer host for zero kilowatt hours and assign a virtual net metering credit to the customer host's beneficial accounts for the next monthly billing period. An electric distribution company shall only assign virtual net metering credits until a beneficial account's monthly bill equals zero kilowatt hours.

(b) An electric distribution company shall carry forward any unassigned virtual net metering credits earned by the customer host from one monthly billing period to the next until the end of the calendar year. At the end of each calendar year, the electric distribution company shall compensate the customer host for any unassigned virtual net metering credits at the retail rate of electric power generation.

(c) At least sixty days before a customer host's virtual net metering facility becomes operational, the customer host shall provide written notice to the electric distribution company of its beneficial accounts. The customer host may change its list of beneficial accounts no more than once annually by providing another sixty days' written notice. The customer host shall not designate more than five beneficial accounts.

(d) On or before February 1, 2011, the Department of Public Utility Control shall conduct a proceeding to develop the administrative processes and program specifications to implement the provisions of this section

Statement of Purpose:

To develop a virtual net metering program to allow electric distribution company customers who own Class I renewable energy sources and who use less energy than they generate to assign their unused credits.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]