SB 1347 - The act establishes a community solar pilot program. Each retail electric supplier shall implement a three-year community solar pilot program to run during calendar years 2025-2027. Retail electric suppliers shall allow subscriber administrators and owners or operators of community solar facilities to recruit customers as subscribers and process subscribers' bill credits as described in the act. Each retail electric supplier shall continue operating its community solar pilot program until the total solar electricity demand equals 5% of the retail electric supplier's electricity sales for the previous year. A community solar facility may be built, owned, or operated by a third party entity under contract with an owner or operator of a community solar facility or a subscriber administrator. A subscriber administrator may contract to administer bill credits to the subscriber's electricity bill generated by the subscriber's share of the community solar facility under the act. A subscriber administrator that provides bill credit to a subscriber shall not be considered an electrical corporation or public utility. The owner or operator of a community solar facility may serve as a subscriber administrator as described in the act.
No later than nine months after the effective date of the act, the Public Service Commission shall establish the value of the bill credit for each retail electric supplier to offset each subscriber's retail electric bill for each kilowatt hour subscribed from a community solar facility. The Commission shall establish the bill credit value as described in the act.
A retail electric supplier shall allow for the transferability and portability of subscriptions. On a monthly basis, a subscriber administrator shall update the subscriber administrator's list of subscribers as described in the act. A subscriber administrator or third party owning or operating a community solar facility shall not be considered a retail electric supplier or an electric generation provider solely as a result of involvement with a community solar facility. Duties of retail electric suppliers are described in the act. Compensation for retail electric suppliers is described in the act.
Each community solar facility shall be subscribed with at least 10% low-income customers and 20% residential customers. A retail electric supplier shall purchase unsubscribed energy from a community solar facility at described in the act.
No entity as described in the act may develop, own, or operate more than one community solar facility on the same parcel or contiguous parcels of land.
Interconnection standards for community solar facilities under 100 kilowatts shall be the same as those for net-metered customers under the act. For systems larger than 100 kilowatts, the Commission shall develop technical and net metering interconnection rules for customer-generators intending to operate community solar facilities or renewable onsite generators in parallel with the electric utility grid as described in the act.
This act is identical to HB 2574 (2024), SB 824 (2022) and substantially similar to SB 627 (2023).
JULIA SHEVELEVA