In the near future, we plan to introduce legislation that allows landlords to master meter their multifamily residential units and directs the Public Utility Commission to establish a programs for landlord ratepayers or their designated agents for the use of a master meter system or subsystem.
 
Master metering is a system by which a public utility and electric generation services for a single residential building are billed through a commercial public utility account. While individual metering has its merits, master metering, particularly when coupled with effective submetering strategies, offers significant benefits in terms of operational efficiency, cost management, and the promotion of energy conservation within the multifamily housing sector.
 
Master metering consolidates utility billing for an entire property under a single account, offering several key advantages for landlords, such as simplified administration, potential for bulk rate savings as utility providers often offer discounted rates for high-volume consumption, enhanced control over building systems, and reduced vacancy costs.
 
This legislation is structured to ensure that residents directly benefit from master metering and submetering, not just landlords. It creates clear, enforceable protections that give tenants more control over their energy usage, access to technologies that can lower bills, and transparency through itemized billing and historical usage disclosures. Importantly, it requires that tenants either receive tools to actively manage and reduce consumption or are guaranteed costs below the statutory cap, ensuring real savings. Residents are also connected to income-based assistance programs and benefit from improved building efficiency, predictive maintenance that can prevent costly system failures, and investments in clean energy that reduce long-term costs and environmental impact. Taken together, these provisions shift master metering from a purely operational tool into a resident-focused model that prioritizes affordability, transparency, and energy savings.
 
We urge you to join us in cosponsoring this legislation that empowers landlords with greater control and administrative simplicity, while offering tangible benefits to tenants and contributing to broader sustainability efforts.