Promoting Renewable Energy with Shared Solar Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4175 To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to promote safe and reliable interconnection and net billing for community solar facilities. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AUGUST 6, 2019 Mr. VAN DREW introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to promote safe and reliable interconnection and net billing for community solar facilities. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Renewable 4 Energy with Shared Solar Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 4175 IH SEC. 2. PROVISION OF INTERCONNECTION SERVICE AND 1 NET BILLING SERVICE FOR COMMUNITY 2 SOLAR FACILITIES. 3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 111(d) of the Public Util- 4 ity Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2621(d)) 5 is amended by adding at the end the following: 6 ‘‘(20) COMMUNITY SOLAR FACILITIES.— 7 ‘‘(A) DEFINITIONS.—In this paragraph: 8 ‘‘(i) COMMUNITY SOLAR FACILITY.— 9 The term ‘community solar facility’ means 10 a solar photovoltaic system that— 11 ‘‘(I) allocates electricity to mul- 12 tiple individual electric consumers of 13 an electric utility; 14 ‘‘(II) has a nameplate rating of 2 15 megawatts or less; and 16 ‘‘(III) is— 17 ‘‘(aa) owned by the electric 18 utility, jointly owned, or third- 19 party owned; 20 ‘‘(bb) connected to a local 21 distribution facility of the electric 22 utility; and 23 ‘‘(cc) located on or off the 24 property of a consumer of the 25 electricity. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:05 Aug 20, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 4175 IH ‘‘(ii) INTERCONNECTION SERVICE.— 1 The term ‘interconnection service’ means a 2 service provided by an electric utility to an 3 electric consumer, in accordance with the 4 standards described in paragraph (15), 5 through which a community solar facility is 6 connected to an applicable local distribu- 7 tion facility. 8 ‘‘(iii) NET BILLING SERVICE.—The 9 term ‘net billing service’ means a service 10 provided by an electric utility to an electric 11 consumer through which electric energy 12 generated for that electric consumer from 13 a community solar facility may be used to 14 offset electric energy provided by the elec- 15 tric utility to the electric consumer during 16 the applicable billing period. 17 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT.—On receipt of a re- 18 quest of an electric consumer served by the 19 electric utility, each electric utility shall make 20 available to the electric consumer interconnec- 21 tion service and net billing service for a commu- 22 nity solar facility.’’. 23 (b) COMPLIANCE.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 4175 IH (1) TIME LIMITATIONS.—Section 112(b) of the 1 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (16 2 U.S.C. 2622(b)) is amended by adding at the end 3 the following: 4 ‘‘(7)(A) Not later than 1 year after the date of 5 enactment of this paragraph, each State regulatory 6 authority (with respect to each electric utility for 7 which the State has ratemaking authority) and each 8 nonregulated utility shall commence consideration 9 under section 111, or set a hearing date for consid- 10 eration, with respect to the standard established by 11 paragraph (20) of section 111(d). 12 ‘‘(B) Not later than 2 years after the date of 13 enactment of this paragraph, each State regulatory 14 authority (with respect to each electric utility for 15 which the State has ratemaking authority), and each 16 nonregulated electric utility shall complete the con- 17 sideration and make the determination under section 18 111 with respect to the standard established by 19 paragraph (20) of section 111(d).’’. 20 (2) FAILURE TO COMPLY.— 21 (A) IN GENERAL.—Section 112(c) of the 22 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 23 (16 U.S.C. 2622(c)) is amended— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 4175 IH (i) by striking ‘‘such paragraph (14)’’ 1 and all that follows through ‘‘paragraphs 2 (16)’’ and inserting ‘‘such paragraph (14). 3 In the case of the standard established by 4 paragraph (15) of section 111(d), the ref- 5 erence contained in this subsection to the 6 date of enactment of this Act shall be 7 deemed to be a reference to the date of en- 8 actment of that paragraph (15). In the 9 case of the standards established by para- 10 graphs (16)’’; and 11 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 12 lowing: ‘‘In the case of the standard estab- 13 lished by paragraph (20) of section 111(d), 14 the reference contained in this subsection 15 to the date of enactment of this Act shall 16 be deemed to be a reference to the date of 17 enactment of that paragraph (20).’’. 18 (B) TECHNICAL CORRECTION.— 19 (i) IN GENERAL.—Section 1254(b) of 20 the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public 21 Law 109–58; 119 Stat. 971) is amended 22 by striking paragraph (2). 23 (ii) TREATMENT.—The amendment 24 made by paragraph (2) of section 1254(b) 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 4175 IH of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public 1 Law 109–58; 119 Stat. 971) (as in effect 2 on the day before the date of enactment of 3 this Act) is void, and section 112(d) of the 4 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 5 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2622(d)) shall be in ef- 6 fect as if those amendments had not been 7 enacted. 8 (3) PRIOR STATE ACTIONS.— 9 (A) IN GENERAL.—Section 112 of the 10 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 11 (16 U.S.C. 2622) is amended by adding at the 12 end the following: 13 ‘‘(g) PRIOR STATE ACTIONS.—Subsections (b) and 14 (c) shall not apply to the standard established by para- 15 graph (20) of section 111(d) in the case of any electric 16 utility in a State if, before the date of enactment of this 17 subsection— 18 ‘‘(1) the State has implemented for the electric 19 utility the standard (or a comparable standard); 20 ‘‘(2) the State regulatory authority for the 21 State or the relevant nonregulated electric utility has 22 conducted a proceeding to consider implementation 23 of the standard (or a comparable standard) for the 24 electric utility; or 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 4175 IH ‘‘(3) the State legislature has voted on the im- 1 plementation of the standard (or a comparable 2 standard) for the electric utility.’’. 3 (B) CROSS-REFERENCE.—Section 124 of 4 the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 5 1978 (16 U.S.C. 2634) is amended by adding 6 at the end the following: ‘‘In the case of the 7 standard established by paragraph (20) of sec- 8 tion 111(d), the reference contained in this sub- 9 section to the date of enactment of this Act 10 shall be deemed to be a reference to the date 11 of enactment of that paragraph (20).’’. 12 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 03:39 Aug 16, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4175.IH H4175 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS