An Act To Encourage the Use of Renewable Energy
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1. 35-A MRSA §3209-A, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 262, §1, is repealed and the following enacted in its place:
§ 3209-A. Net energy billing
This section governs net energy billing.
1. Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the following terms have the following meanings.
A. "Credit" means the amount of kilowatt-hours generated by an eligible facility associated with a customer's account, as determined by rule by the commission, that is in excess of the amount of kilowatt-hours used by that customer within any given billing period.
B. "Eligible facility" means an electricity generating facility with a generating capacity of up to 2 megawatts that is eligible, as defined by commission by rule, to generate electricity to be used for net energy billing.
C. "Net energy" means the difference between the kilowatt-hours consumed by a customer and the kilowatt-hours generated by an eligible facility associated with a customer's account, as determined by rule by the commission.
D. "Net energy billing" means a billing and metering practice under which a customer is billed on the basis of net energy over the billing period taking into account accumulated credits from the previous billing period.
2. Net energy billing; no limit. A customer need not own the relevant eligible facility or have legal rights to the energy generated by the eligible facility in order to elect net energy billing. A customer may have any number of meters net metered against an eligible facility.
3. Credits. A customer's accumulated unused credits do not expire. A customer may sell accumulated unused credits the customer has earned to another customer of the same transmission and distribution utility if the customers are in the same service territory.
4. Rulemaking. The commission shall adopt rules to implement this section. Rules adopted under this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.
SUMMARY
This bill adds specific requirements for the Public Utilities Commission regarding net energy billing. The requirements specify that net energy billing credits do not expire, that the credits are transferable, that there is no ownership requirement to qualify for net energy billing, that there is no limit on the number of meters that may be net metered against an eligible facility and that eligible facilities may have a generating capacity of up to 2 megawatts.