SB 394: COMMUNITY SOLAR AS DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

An Act Relating To Utilities; Amending A Section Of The Public Utility Act To Provide For Community Solar Facilities To Qualify As Distributed Generation Facilities.

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MILD SB 394
COMMUNITY SOLAR AS DISTRIBUTED GENERATION

Legislative URL:

SB 394 on nmlegis.gov

Emergency Clause:

No

Germane:

N/A

Location:

- OTHER -

Action:

[4] SCONC/SCORC-SCONC API.

Issue(s):

Energy

Related Legislators

Bill Sponsor:

William Soules

Related Documents

Downloads:

Introduced
Fiscal Impact Report

Summary

Senate Bill 394 amends the Public Utility Act to provide that “community solar facilities” will not be subject to regulation as public utilities if the electricity is sold to customers who are “community solar subscribers” and if the public utility serving the area and the community solar facility share a common point of connection.

The bill allows that community solar facilities may be owned by a customer of a public utility or a third party and it requires the public utility serving the area to purchase renewable energy certificates from the owner of the community solar facility at rates established in the utility’s renewable procurement plan.

The bill goes on to define new terms and to amend existing terms.

• A “community solar facility” is a renewable energy distributed generation (DG) facility that sells subscription shares in the facility. The purchaser is entitled to a percentage of the energy generated by the facility.
• A “community solar subscriber” is a buyer of a subscription share(s) who is a customer of the public utility serving the area and who is net metered.
• A “subscription” is a proportional interest in a community solar facility. Each subscription is limited to supplying no more than 120% of the average annual electricity consumption by the subscriber at the location of the subscription.
• The definition of “renewable energy distributed generation facility” is amended to include a community solar facility that is sized at no more than ten megawatts alternating current.

A potential benefit of this bill might be that it will encourage the use of renewable energy DG among groups of homeowners or landlords of multiple adjacent properties.

Date of Summary:  2/4/2013