Bill Text: NY S00456 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to the establishment of a community renewable energy program; directs the public service commission to evaluate a program to allow individuals to choose to receive energy generated from renewable energy systems.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO ENERGY AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS [S00456 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S00456-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           456

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 4, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sen.  MAY  --  read  twice and ordered printed, and when
          printed to be committed to the Committee on  Energy  and  Telecommuni-
          cations

        AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to the establishment
          of a community renewable energy program

          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-u to read as follows:
     3    §  66-u.  Community  renewable  energy program. 1. For the purposes of
     4  this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
     5    (a) "Jurisdictional load serving entity" means any entity  subject  to
     6  the  jurisdiction  of  the  commission  that secures energy to serve the
     7  electrical energy requirements of end-use customers in New York state.
     8    (b) "Renewable energy systems" means systems that generate electricity
     9  or thermal energy through use of the following technologies: solar ther-
    10  mal, photovoltaics, on land and offshore wind, hydroelectric, geothermal
    11  electric, geothermal ground source  heat,  tidal  energy,  wave  energy,
    12  ocean  thermal,  and  fuel  cells  which  do  not  utilize a fossil fuel
    13  resource in the process of generating electricity.
    14    (c) "Low-income customer" means an individual or household that quali-
    15  fies for public assistance  or  supplemental  security  income  benefits
    16  under  the  social  services  law, or the federal Supplemental Nutrition
    17  Assistance Program (SNAP).
    18    (d) "Disadvantaged communities" has the same  meaning  as  defined  in
    19  article seventy-five of the environmental conservation law.
    20    (e) "Community renewable energy program" or "the program" means such a
    21  program developed pursuant to subdivision three of this section.
    22    (f)  "Subscribers" means individuals that have opted to receive energy
    23  generated by renewable energy  systems  pursuant  to  paragraph  (a)  of
    24  subdivision three of this section.
    25    2.  (a)  On or before March thirty-first, two thousand twenty-six, the
    26  commission shall evaluate the renewable energy systems currently in  use

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00619-01-3
        S. 456                              2

     1  by  jurisdictional  load  serving  entities  in the state, including net
     2  energy metering programs under this article,  to  determine  whether  it
     3  would  be beneficial to ratepayers to establish a new program for juris-
     4  dictional  load  serving  entities  in  the state, or modify an existing
     5  program, to establish a community renewable  energy  program  consistent
     6  with  subdivision  three  of  this section. If the commission determines
     7  that it would be beneficial to ratepayers  to  establish  the  community
     8  renewable energy program, the commission shall, on or before July first,
     9  two  thousand  twenty-six,  establish  the  program  as part of the same
    10  proceeding and  require  each  jurisdictional  load  serving  entity  to
    11  participate in the program.
    12    (b) If the commission establishes a community renewable energy program
    13  pursuant  to paragraph (a) of this subdivision, each jurisdictional load
    14  serving entity, within one hundred eighty days of the  establishment  of
    15  the  program,  shall provide the commission with a plan to implement the
    16  program.
    17    3. The community renewable energy program, if  established,  shall  do
    18  all of the following:
    19    (a) Allow individuals to choose to receive energy from their jurisdic-
    20  tional  load  serving  entity  that  is  generated  by  renewable energy
    21  systems.
    22    (b) Ensure at least fifty-one percent of the program's capacity serves
    23  low-income customers.
    24    (c) Minimize impacts to nonparticipating customers by prohibiting  the
    25  program's  costs from being paid by nonparticipating customers in excess
    26  of the avoided costs.  Qualifying funds for financial  incentives  shall
    27  only be available through an appropriation by the legislature.
    28    (d)  Provide bill credits to subscribers based on the avoided costs of
    29  the program's facilities, as determined by the commission's methods  for
    30  calculating  the  full  set of benefits of distributed energy resources.
    31  The commission may use actual wholesale market  prices  for  the  energy
    32  supply portion of an avoided cost calculation or credit value.
    33    (e)  Prioritize  the  maximum  use of state and federal incentives and
    34  accelerate implementation of the program to ensure that time- or quanti-
    35  ty-limited federal  incentives  can  be  obtained  for  the  benefit  of
    36  subscribers. As part of this prioritization, the commission shall ensure
    37  that a jurisdictional load serving entity participating in the community
    38  renewable  energy program is eligible for an enhanced federal investment
    39  tax credit available as a qualified low-income economic benefit  project
    40  pursuant  to  subsection  (e)  of  section  48 of title 26 of the United
    41  States Code.
    42    4. (a) Within twenty-four months of establishing a community renewable
    43  energy program pursuant to this section,  if  applicable,  and  annually
    44  thereafter  for the duration of the program, the commission shall submit
    45  a report to the legislature, on the facilities  deployed  and  customers
    46  subscribed,  pursuant  to such program, including an analysis of low-in-
    47  come customer participation.
    48    (b) On or before March  thirty-first,  two  thousand  twenty-six,  the
    49  commission shall report to the legislature on its actions taken pursuant
    50  to  this  section and its justification for its determination of whether
    51  to implement the program pursuant to this section.
    52    5. The commissioner is authorized to promulgate any rules and/or regu-
    53  lations necessary for the implementation of this section.
    54    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.