Bill Text: NY A04252 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Relates to shared renewable energy facilities; provides for the determination of credits of subscribers to such facilities.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-03 - referred to energy [A04252 Detail]
Download: New_York-2017-A04252-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4252 2017-2018 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 2, 2017 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. QUART -- read once and referred to the Committee on Energy AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to shared renewable energy facilities The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The public service law is amended by adding a new section 2 66-o to read as follows: 3 § 66-o. Shared renewable energy facilities. 1. Definitions. As used in 4 this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings: 5 (a) "Shared renewable energy facility" means renewable energy technol- 6 ogy that is owned or developed by an entity other than a public authori- 7 ty or an electric distribution company and that is manufactured, 8 installed, and operated in accordance with applicable government and 9 industry standards; that is connected to the electric system and oper- 10 ated in conjunction with an electric corporation's transmission and 11 distribution facilities; that is operated in compliance with any stand- 12 ards and requirements established under this section; and where elec- 13 tricity generated by the facility is credited to the subscribers of the 14 facility. A shared renewable energy facility: 15 (i) shall utilize one of the following renewable energy technologies 16 as defined by sections sixty-six-j and sixty-six-l of this article: (A) 17 solar electric generating equipment; (B) farm waste electric generating 18 equipment; (C) fuel cell electric generating equipment; (D) micro-hy- 19 droelectric generating equipment; and (E) wind electric generating 20 equipment; 21 (ii) shall have at least two subscribers; and 22 (iii) shall have a rated capacity of not more than two thousand kilo- 23 watts, and the commission shall have the authority to determine maximum 24 rated capacity thresholds for shared renewable energy facilities based 25 upon an evaluation and finding of public interest, as determined by a EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD08932-01-7A. 4252 2 1 stakeholder process through a proceeding to be established by the 2 commission, and the attributes of each renewable energy technology. 3 (b) "Subscriber" means a customer of an electric corporation who 4 subscribes to a shared renewable energy facility and who has identified 5 an individual meter at any property owned or leased by the customer to 6 which the subscription shall be attributed. Such meters shall be within 7 the service territory of the same electric corporation to which the 8 shared renewable energy facility is interconnected and within the same 9 load zone of the New York independent system operator as determined by 10 the locational based marginal price as of the date of the initial 11 request by the subscriber organization to interconnect the shared renew- 12 able energy facility. 13 (c) "Subscriber organization" means an organization whose purpose is 14 to own and operate a shared renewable energy facility for the subscrib- 15 ers of the shared renewable energy facility. A subscriber organization 16 may be any for-profit or non-profit entity and shall be permitted by the 17 state pursuant to section sixty-eight of this chapter if, as determined 18 by the commission to be in the public interest pursuant to a stakeholder 19 process through a proceeding to be established by the commission, the 20 subscriber organization's shared renewable energy facility has a maximum 21 rated capacity threshold larger than two thousand kilowatts. 22 (i) The subscriber organization shall file with the department of 23 state articles of incorporation, amendment, consolidation, merger, 24 conversion, or dissolution, when executed and acknowledged, including 25 such affidavits as may be required by the department of state. The 26 secretary of state shall, upon the payment of the fees as specified in 27 this paragraph, index such articles. Upon the filing of such articles, 28 the incorporation, amendment, consolidation, merger, conversion, or 29 dissolution provided for therein shall be in effect. The department of 30 state shall charge and collect for: 31 (1) Filing articles of incorporation, forty dollars; 32 (2) Filing articles of amendment, twenty-five dollars; 33 (3) Filing articles of consolidation or merger, twenty-five dollars; 34 (4) Filing articles of conversion, twenty-five dollars; 35 (5) Filing certificate of election to dissolve, five dollars; 36 (6) Filing articles of dissolution, five dollars; and 37 (7) Filing certificate of change of principal office, fifteen dollars. 38 (ii) Each subscriber organization shall file with the commission an 39 annual report, which shall show in detail: 40 (1) The number of its members; 41 (2) The amount of its outstanding indebtedness; 42 (3) Its receipts and expenditures during the preceding year; 43 (4) The amount paid in reduction of its indebtedness and as interest 44 upon its indebtedness; 45 (5) The names of its officers and the aggregate amount paid as sala- 46 ries to them and the amount paid as wages to any of its employees; and 47 (6) The location of its plant or plants and system, with a full 48 description of its property and franchise areas. 49 (d) "Subscriber agreement" means a written agreement identifying each 50 subscriber of a shared renewable energy facility, which shall include 51 the name, address, and the electric corporation account number to which 52 the subscription shall be attributed. The subscriber agreement shall 53 designate the portion of production from the shared renewable energy 54 facility allocated to each subscriber for the purposes of calculating 55 the bill credit to each subscriber. The subscriber agreement shall beA. 4252 3 1 filed by the subscriber organization with the electric corporation to 2 which the shared renewable energy facility is interconnected. 3 (e) "Subscription" means a direct or indirect ownership, lease, or 4 financial interest in a shared renewable energy facility that enables a 5 subscriber to receive a bill credit for a retail account with the elec- 6 tric corporation. Each subscription shall be sized to represent the 7 energy production from at least one kilowatt of the shared renewable 8 energy facility's generating capacity provided, however, that the 9 subscription is sized to produce no more than one hundred percent of the 10 subscriber's average annual electrical consumption. In sizing the 11 subscription, a deduction for the amount of any existing renewable ener- 12 gy generation at the subscriber's premises and any subscriptions by the 13 subscriber in other shared renewable energy facilities shall be made. 14 (f) "Bill credit" means an amount of money credited each billing peri- 15 od to an electric account based on a subscription to a shared renewable 16 energy facility and pursuant to a subscriber agreement and the methodol- 17 ogy used for calculation of the bill credit as established under this 18 section. 19 2. Provisions pertaining to shared renewable energy facilities. (a) 20 The determination of the bill credit available to each subscriber of a 21 shared renewable energy facility shall be based on each subscriber's 22 subscription in that shared renewable energy facility. 23 (b) For a shared renewable energy facility, the total amount of elec- 24 tricity generated and available for allocation to subscribers shall be 25 determined by a production meter installed and paid for by the subscrib- 26 er organization that is the owner of the shared renewable energy facili- 27 ty. 28 3. Provisions pertaining to subscribers, subscriber organizations and 29 subscriptions. (a) A subscriber organization shall be responsible for 30 providing to the electric corporation, at the beginning of each billing 31 cycle, a subscriber agreement statement identifying the portion of 32 production allocated to each subscriber. Subscriber organizations may 33 add new subscribers to a subscriber agreement or change the individual 34 metered accounts to which a subscriber's subscription shall be attri- 35 buted at the beginning of each billing cycle by providing an updated 36 subscriber agreement to the electric corporation. If there has been no 37 change in the allocations from the previous submission, the subscriber 38 organization is not required to file an updated subscriber agreement. 39 (b) An electric corporation may require that customers participating 40 in a shared renewable energy facility have their meters read on the same 41 billing cycle. 42 (c) The dispute resolution procedures available to parties in the 43 electric corporation's interconnection tariff shall be available for the 44 purposes of resolving disputes between an electric corporation and 45 subscribers or their designated representative for disputes involving 46 the electric corporation's allocation of bill credits to the subscrib- 47 er's electric account. The electric corporation shall not be responsible 48 for resolving disputes related to the agreements between a subscriber, 49 the owner of a shared renewable energy facility that is a subscriber 50 organization or any other party. This provision shall in no way limit 51 any other rights the subscriber may have related to an electric corpo- 52 ration's provision of electric service or other matters as provided by, 53 but not limited to, tariff, decision of the commission, or statute. 54 (d) The following provisions may apply to a shared renewable energy 55 facility that has a rated capacity of not more than two thousand kilo- 56 watts, based upon an evaluation and finding of public interest as deter-A. 4252 4 1 mined by a stakeholder process through a proceeding to be established by 2 the commission: 3 (i) Subscribers shall not be assessed standby charges on the shared 4 renewable energy facility or the kilowatt-hour generation of such a 5 shared renewable energy facility. 6 (ii) An electric corporation shall impose no other charge or fee, 7 including back-up, standby and demand charges, for the provision of a 8 subscription to such a shared renewable energy facility. 9 4. Bill crediting and collection procedures. (a) The electric corpo- 10 ration will credit the accounts of the subscribers of the shared renewa- 11 ble energy facility by applying a bill credit to each metered account 12 associated with a subscription in accordance with the terms of the 13 subscriber agreement. The electric corporation shall carry over any bill 14 credit earned by a subscriber and not used in the current billing period 15 to offset the subscriber's consumption in subsequent billing periods. 16 Any such bill credit shall not reduce any fixed monthly customer charges 17 imposed by the electric corporation. 18 (b) The schedule applicable to a subscriber shall be identical, with 19 respect to rate structure, all retail rate components, and any monthly 20 charges, to the charges that the subscriber would be assigned if the 21 subscriber did not receive a bill credit according to this section. 22 (c) To the extent practicable, electric corporations shall utilize 23 existing electronic data interchange infrastructure or other existing 24 billing infrastructure to implement their billing and collection respon- 25 sibilities under this section. 26 (d) The commission shall ensure full and timely recovery of all 27 reasonable costs incurred by an electric corporation to implement the 28 program under this section, including reasonable expenses for changes to 29 their billing system and handling of collections, and shall determine 30 the appropriate method of allocating those costs. 31 5. Calculation of bill credits. (a) For subscribers to a shared renew- 32 able energy facility that are located on the same distribution feeder as 33 the shared renewable energy facility, the value of the bill credit shall 34 be calculated by multiplying the subscriber's portion of the kilowatt- 35 hour electricity production from the shared renewable energy facility by 36 the retail rate as charged to the subscriber by the electric corpo- 37 ration; 38 (b) The commission, in consultation with New York state energy 39 research and development authority, may revise the bill credit calcu- 40 lation methodology at any time that it concludes that the existing meth- 41 odology does not provide subscribers with the fair value of electricity 42 and other benefits produced by shared renewable energy facilities and 43 that such a revision is in the public interest, as determined by a 44 stakeholder process through a proceeding to be established by the 45 commission. Any revision to the bill credit calculation methodology 46 shall apply to new shared renewable energy facilities interconnected 47 after the commission adopts a new methodology. 48 6. Conditions of service. (a) An electric corporation shall provide 49 for the interconnection of shared renewable energy facilities owned or 50 operated by a subscriber organization, provided the subscriber organiza- 51 tion has paid or agreed in writing, along with the furnishing of reason- 52 able security, to pay the electric corporation for the material and 53 installation costs relating to any portion of a distribution line, 54 service line and appurtenant facilities that exceeds the portion which 55 the electric corporation is required to provide without contribution, 56 which costs shall be defined in the electric corporation's tariff, andA. 4252 5 1 that the subscriber organization enters into a contract with the corpo- 2 ration or complies with the corporation's applicable schedule and 3 complies with standards and requirements established under this section. 4 (b) On or before three months after the effective date of this 5 section, each electric corporation shall develop a model contract and 6 file a schedule that establishes consistent and reasonable rates, terms 7 and conditions for shared renewable energy facilities, according to the 8 requirements of this section. The commission shall render a decision 9 within three months from the date on which the schedule is filed. 10 (c) In the event that the electric corporation determines that it is 11 necessary to install a dedicated transformer or transformers, or other 12 equipment to protect the safety and adequacy of electric service 13 provided to other customers, a subscriber organization shall pay the 14 electric corporation's actual costs of installing the transformer or 15 transformers, or other equipment as determined by the electric corpo- 16 ration subject to review, upon request of such subscriber organization, 17 by the commission. 18 (d) On or before three months after the effective date of the chapter 19 of the laws of two thousand seventeen that added this section, each 20 electric corporation shall establish standards that are necessary for 21 shared renewable energy facilities and the interconnection of shared 22 renewable energy generating equipment to its system and that the commis- 23 sion shall determine are necessary for safe and adequate service and 24 further the public policy set forth in this section. Such standards may 25 include, but shall not be limited to: 26 (i) equipment necessary to isolate automatically the energy generating 27 equipment from the utility system for voltage and frequency deviations; 28 and 29 (ii) a manual lockable disconnect switch provided by the subscriber 30 organization which shall be externally accessible for the purpose of 31 isolating the energy generating equipment. 32 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
