This bill amends the Limited Electrical Energy Producers Act to establish new requirements for large customer-generators participating in net energy metering. Specifically, it mandates that facilities with a generation capacity between 100 kilowatts and 5 megawatts, which come into service after January 1, 2023, must consume at least 20 percent of their own generated energy annually. This consumption requirement does not apply to low and moderate-income customers as defined by the public utilities commission. Additionally, the bill introduces new net energy metering tariffs that allow eligible customer-generators to receive compensation for up to 20 years or until December 31, 2040, whichever is longer, and provides options for transitioning to new tariffs if created by the commission.

The bill also modifies the definition of "eligible customer-generator" by removing the requirement that the generator and the customer must be in the same utility service territory, thereby allowing for greater flexibility in energy generation and consumption. This change necessitates improvements in the billing systems of electric distribution utilities to facilitate data sharing across different service territories, which could incur significant costs. The bill does not provide funding for these changes, and the financial impact on local and county expenditures is expected to be indeterminable, potentially leading to increased electricity costs for ratepayers.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 362-A:1-a, 362-A:9