This bill amends RSA 374-G:5, II(f) to enhance the criteria that the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) must consider when determining public interest prior to approving a utility's rate recovery for investments in distributed energy resources. The new legal language inserted into the current law specifies that the PUC must evaluate the impact on competition within the region's electricity markets and the state's energy services market. It emphasizes the importance of utility rates, tariffs, metering, data sharing, consolidated billing, and load estimation processes in enabling customer-generators and limited producers to receive credit for the value produced and costs avoided, which should be comparable to the benefits claimed by the utility in its investment proposal.

The bill does not allocate funding or authorize new positions, and its fiscal impact is indeterminable for both state and local governments. The PUC has expressed uncertainty regarding the implications of the added provision on its established review processes and the potential need for additional resources to comply with the new requirements. Consequently, while the bill aims to clarify the PUC's considerations regarding utility investments, the exact effects on expenditures and utility rates remain unclear and are expected to manifest after FY 2025.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 374-G:5