This bill amends the General Laws in Chapter 39-26.4, which governs net metering, by updating definitions and regulations for net-metering systems. It expands the definition of "community remote system" to include facilities that allocate credits to low- or moderate-income housing or to at least three customer accounts. The bill also clarifies the ownership of "community remote net-metering systems," which can be owned by the customer of record or a third party, and outlines the criteria for transferring credits to eligible recipients. It includes insertions of the word "or" to clarify the inclusion of various entities as owners or operators of eligible net-metering systems and sets a future effective date for a provision regarding the interconnection of eligible net-metering systems.
Additionally, the bill defines "excess renewable credit," establishes the maximum allowable capacity for eligible net-metering systems at 10 megawatts, and sets a maximum aggregate capacity of 275 MWac for ground-mounted systems. It allows electric distribution companies to estimate production and consumption over a twelve-month period to stabilize bills and provides for the issuance of checks or carryover of credits. The bill also exempts customer accounts associated with eligible net-metering systems from certain rates and mandates the redesign of the community solar remote net metering program to include commercial or industrial anchor tenants and low- and moderate-income residents. It includes changes to the legal language, such as changing "acres" to "yards" in the definition of "core forest" and updates the purpose of the chapter. The bill also specifies conditions for distributed-generation facilities to be considered new and exempts preexisting hydro generation from certain provisions. The act would take effect immediately upon passage.