General Assembly		Raised Bill No. 928
January Session, 2015		LCO No. 3739
		*03739_______ET_*
Referred to Committee on ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduced by:
(ET)

AN ACT CONCERNING SHARED CLEAN ENERGY FACILITIES.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2015) (a) As used in this section and section 2 of this act:

(1) "Shared clean energy facility" means a Class I renewable energy source, as defined in section 16-1 of the general statutes, that (A) is served by an electric distribution company, as defined in section 16-1 of the general statutes, (B) is within the same electric distribution company service territory as the individual billing meters for subscriptions, (C) has a nameplate capacity rating of three megawatts or less, and (D) has at least two subscribers;

(2) "Shared clean energy facility credit" means a credit equal to the retail cost per kilowatt hour that the subscriber would have otherwise been charged by the electric distribution company that services the territory where the subscriber is located, including, but not limited to, the generation service charges, transmission and distribution charges and any other charges, as determined by the authority;

(3) "Authority" means the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, as defined in section 16-1 of the general statutes;

(4) "Individual billing meter" means an individual electric meter or a set of electric meters, when such meters are combined for billing purposes, within the service territory of the subscriber's electric distribution company;

(5) "Electric distribution company" has the same meaning as provided in section 16-1 of the general statutes;

(6) "Subscriber" means an in-state retail end user of an electric distribution company who (A) has contracted for a subscription, and (B) has identified an individual billing meter to which the subscription shall be attributed;

(7) "Subscriber organization" means any for-profit or not-for-profit entity permitted by Connecticut law that (A) owns or operates one or more shared clean energy facilities for the benefit of the subscribers, or (B) contracts with a third-party entity to build, own or operate one or more shared clean energy facilities; and

(8) "Subscription" means a beneficial use of a shared clean energy facility, including, but not limited to, a percentage interest in the total amount of electricity produced by such facility or a set amount of electricity produced by such facility.

(b) A shared clean energy facility may be built, owned or operated by a third-party entity under contract with a subscriber organization.

(c) A subscriber shall not have a subscription for more than one hundred per cent of such subscriber's own electric consumption, based upon such subscriber's previous twelve months of energy usage. For a subscriber with less than twelve months of energy usage data, a good faith estimate of the subscriber's electric consumption may be utilized to determine the size of the subscription.

(d) Any price paid for a subscription in a shared clean energy facility shall not be subject to regulation by the authority.

(e) A subscriber organization or the owner of a shared clean energy facility shall not sell subscriptions totaling more than one hundred per cent of the electricity produced by such facility.

(f) A subscriber organization may add capacity and subscribers to the shared clean energy facility if such added capacity and subscribers do not reduce any electricity output to existing subscribers. If such added capacity would cause an existing subscriber to have a subscription for more than one hundred per cent of such subscriber's own electric consumption, as described in subsection (c) of this section, such subscription shall be adjusted to ensure such subscriber is compliant with subsection (c) of this section.

(g) A subscriber organization may update its subscribers not more than once per quarter. Each quarter, the owner of a shared clean energy facility or its designated agent shall provide the following information about each subscriber to the electric distribution company, as required to facilitate crediting subscribers: (1) The name, address, account number and meter number or numbers; and (2) the subscription percentage or amount.

(h) A subscriber organization shall fully comply and adhere to the consumer protection provisions contained in section 2 of this act and all applicable state and federal securities and tax laws. The subscriber organization shall be responsible for all liability and costs resulting from noncompliance with any such provision.

(i) The electric distribution company may require that a shared clean energy facility and its subscribers have their meters read on the same billing cycle.

(j) If the capacity of a shared clean energy facility is not fully subscribed, the electric distribution company shall purchase the electricity associated with the unsubscribed capacity at the locational marginal price for the state, as determined by the regional independent system operator, as defined in section 16-1 of the general statutes.

(k) (1) All electricity exported to the electric power grid by the shared clean energy facility shall become the property of the electric distribution company, provided such electricity shall not be counted toward the total output or services of the electric distribution company for purposes of the renewable energy portfolio standards established pursuant to section 16-245a of the general statutes. The electric distribution company may use all such electricity to offset purchases from wholesale suppliers for standard service and suppliers of last resort service, or may sell such electricity into the wholesale market and credit the revenues, net of administrative costs against the costs incurred by the company in implementing the provisions of this act, subject to review by the authority.

(2) A subscriber organization or a third-party entity under contract with the subscriber organization shall own the shared clean energy facility credits associated with the electricity generated by the shared clean energy facility, unless the credits were explicitly contracted for a separate transaction, independent of any net metering or interconnection agreement or contract.

(l) The subscriber organization, any subscriber or any third-party entity owning or operating a shared clean energy facility shall not be considered an electric distribution company or an electric supplier, as defined in section 16-1 of the general statutes, solely as a result of any involvement with the shared clean energy facility, and shall have no rights to own or operate an electric distribution system.

(m) The owner or operator of each shared clean energy facility, whether a subscriber organization or third-party entity, shall follow all procedures for interconnection specified in section 16-243a of the general statutes.

(n) The amount of electricity generated each month available for allocation as subscribed or unsubscribed electricity shall be determined by a revenue quality production meter installed and paid for by the owner of the shared clean energy facility. It shall be the electric distribution company's responsibility to read such production meter. The shared clean energy facility shall be obligated to compensate the electric distribution company for the company's reasonable costs of interconnection to accommodate the facility.

(o) The authority may revise the methodology for calculating the shared clean energy facility credit at any time if it concludes that such a revision is in the public interest and (1) the existing methodology does not provide subscribers with the fair value of electricity produced by shared clean energy facilities based on the benefits of shared clean energy facilities, or (2) such shared clean energy facility credit results in a substantial net shifting of costs to nonparticipating ratepayers. Prior to any such revision, the authority shall institute a public proceeding to develop a methodology for calculating the shared clean energy facility credit, which shall be based off of the costs and benefits to the electric distribution companies, customers of such companies and the economic conditions for operating shared clean energy facilities interconnected to the electric power grid. Alternatively, should the authority conduct any proceeding comprehensively addressing costs and benefits of renewable distributed generation that could reasonably be seen to include shared clean energy facilities, the outcome of that proceeding may inform revisions to the shared clean energy facility credit. Any revision to the shared clean energy facility credit shall only apply to new shared clean energy facilities interconnected after the authority adopts a new methodology.

(p) Each billing month, a subscriber may be eligible for a bill credit. The bill credit shall be calculated by multiplying the quantity of kilowatt hours allocated to each subscriber by the shared clean energy facility credit minus any deductions agreed to by the subscriber that shall instead be paid by the electric distribution company to the subscriber organization or the third-party entity for operations and maintenance purposes on behalf of the subscriber. Any such agreed to amount shall be held in an escrow or trust account on behalf of the subscribers and shall not be property of the subscriber organization, electric distribution company or any third-party entity.

(1) If the value of the bill credit allocated to the subscriber exceeds the amount owed by the subscriber to the electric distribution company, as shown on such subscriber's bill at the end of the billing period, the remaining value of such bill credit shall carry over from month to month until the value of any remaining bill credit is used.

(2) If the value of the bill credit allocated to the subscriber is less than the amount owed by the subscriber to the electric distribution company as shown on such subscriber's bill at the end of the applicable billing period, the subscriber shall be billed for the difference between the amount shown on the bill and the value of the available bill credit.

(q) At the request of a subscriber organization, the electric distribution company may bill the subscriber on behalf of the subscriber organization, provided the subscriber organization pays the company's costs associated with billing and collection from the subscriber, with these costs subject to review by the authority.

(r) Electric distribution companies may seek recovery of any costs associated with the administration of the shared clean energy facility.

(s) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this section, the authority may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective October 1, 2015) (a) Any entity selling or reselling a subscription in a shared clean energy facility shall provide, prior to the sale or resale of such subscription, a disclosure to the potential subscriber that includes, but need not be limited to, the following:

(1) A good faith estimate of the annual kilowatt hours to be delivered by the shared clean energy facility based on the size of the subscriber's subscription;

(2) A plain language explanation of the terms under which the bill credits will be calculated, including, but not limited to, a plain language explanation of the shared clean energy facility credit;

(3) A plain language explanation of the contract provisions regulating the disposition or transfer of the subscription; and

(4) A plain language explanation of the costs and benefits to the potential subscriber and all assumptions used therein for the term of the proposed contract, based on the subscriber's current usage and applicable tariff.

(b) A subscriber shall be eligible to receive bill credits so long as the shared clean energy facility continues to generate and provide power to the electric power grid, regardless of the bankruptcy or contractual default of any subscriber, any subscriber organization or the third-party entity owner or operator of the shared clean energy facility.

(c) The authority may adopt regulations, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 54 of the general statutes, consistent with the purpose of this section, upon a showing that additional requirements are necessary to protect existing subscribers or potential subscribers.

(d) This section shall in no way limit any other rights and obligations a subscriber may have related to the provision of electric service and delivery of electricity by the electric distribution company or the provision of a subscription by the subscriber organization, third-party entity that owns a shared clean energy facility or other entity as provided by, but not limited to, any tariff, decision of the authority or federal or state statute.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1	October 1, 2015	New section
Sec. 2	October 1, 2015	New section

Statement of Purpose:

To allow for the use of shared clean energy facilities.

[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not underlined.]