HB 1184

Abstract

Distributed renewable energy. Promotes the establishment of distributed renewable solar and other renewable energy. The measure (i) requires the State Corporation Commission to establish by regulation a shared solar program that allows multifamily customers of investor-owned utilities, other than American Electric Power, to purchase electric power through a subscription in a shared solar facility; (ii) raises the cap on the total amount of renewable energy that can be net metered in a utility's service territory from one percent to six percent, five percent of which is available to all customers and one percent of which is available only to low-income utility customers; (iii) raises the cap for net-metered nonresidential generation facilities from one megawatt to three megawatts; (iv) allows certain localities to install solar or wind facilities of up to five megawatts on government-owned property and use the electricity for government-owned buildings, (v) increases the cap on the capacity of generation from facilities from the customer's expected annual energy consumption to 150 percent of such amount for customers in Dominion Energy Virginia's service territory; (vi) prohibits standby charges for any residential customer-generator or agricultural customer-generator of an investor-owned utility other than Dominion Energy Virginia; and (vii) increases the cap on third party power purchase agreements to 500 megawatts for jurisdictional customers and 500 megawatts for nonjurisdictional customers of Dominion Energy Virginia and to 40 megawatts for customers of American Electric Power. The measure also amends the Commonwealth Energy Policy to include provisions supporting distributed generation of renewable energy. This bill is identical to HB 572, HB 1647, and SB 710.

Distributed energy generation. Promotes theestablishment of distributed solar and other renewable energy. The measure (i)increases the cap on the total amount of renewable energy that can be netmetered in a utility's service territory from one percent to 10 percent, (ii)authorizes third-party power purchase agreements for all customer classesthroughout the Commonwealth, (iii) allows local governments and certain otherpublic bodies to install solar facilities of up to five megawatts ongovernment-owned property and use the electricity for government-ownedbuildings, (iv) allows all net metering customers to attribute output from asingle solar array to multiple meters, (v) allows the owner of a multifamilyresidential building or the common areas of a condominium to install a solarenergy generation facility and sell the electricity to tenants or condominiumunit owners, (vi) removes the restriction on customers installing a net-meteredgeneration facility larger than that required to meet their previous 12 months'demand, (vii) raises the cap for net-metered nonresidential generationfacilities from one megawatt to three megawatts, and (viii) removes the abilityof utilities to assess standby charges. The measure also amends theCommonwealth Energy Policy to include provisions supporting distributedgeneration of solar energy and states that the distributed generation of solarelectricity is in the public interest, and the State Corporation Commissionshall so find if required to make a finding regarding whether such constructionor purchase is in the public interest.