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The Maine Public Utilities Commission issued a final order amending the net energy billing (NEB) rules.

This rulemaking addresses Chapter 313 recent legislative amendments required by Chapter 430, Chapter 50, and Chapter 391.

In its most recent session, the Legislature enacted a series of changes affecting the NEB statute. The Legislature enacted An Act to Reduce Costs and Increase Consumer Protections for the State’s Net Energy Billing Program, P.L. 2025, Chapter 430. Chapter 430, (sometimes referred to by its legislative document number, L.D. 1777) included various amendments to the NEB statute, including amendments to sections 3209-A and 3209-B, as well as a new section 3209-F, which enacts a new charge for certain distributed generation projects, and a new section 3209-G, which determines how NEB costs and benefits are reconciled on an annual, calendar year basis. Chapter 430 also contains unallocated language that includes several additional consumer protection provisions.

The Legislature also recently enacted An Act to Clarify the Process to Transfer Funds Resulting from the Expiration of Unused Kilowatt-hour Credits to Be Used to Provide Assistance to Low-income Electricity Customers, P.L. 2025, Chapter 50. Chapter 50 alters the process by which the monetary value of unused credits is remitted to the Maine State Housing Authority for the benefit of individuals receiving low-income assistance.

The Legislature also recently enacted an Act to Ensure Fair and Equitable Recovery of Post-restructuring Stranded Costs, P.L. 2025, Chapter 391 that requires the Commission to make changes in the allocation of NEB costs and benefits by aggregating and allocating the costs to each customer class based on each group’s pro-rata share of stranded costs and separating the costs by utility territory.

To identify specific adopted rule changes see: Final Redline.   Also see the Clean Final Rule.

Highlights of the adopted rule changes include:

• The utility must “cease providing credits from all but the first shared financial interest NEB arrangement from which a residential customer received credits”
• The utility must “clarify that residential customers retain any banked credits from shared financial interest arrangements terminated”
• “[A]ny project currently receiving the alternative tariff rate will continue to be credited the alternative tariff rate.”
• Non-payment of the NEB Project Charge, resulting in non-application of bill credits should “align with existing monthly billing cycles and billing due dates,” and “a 15-day cure period before which a transmission and distribution utility must discontinue providing credits to customers”
• “Adjustments to subscription sizes shall account for changes in annual usage to avoid the need for constant resizing by project sponsors”; and
• Customer information obtained by a project sponsor “must be used only to administer the customer’s NEB arrangement so that potentially sensitive customer data is used in a manner consistent with Chapter 815 of the Commission’s rules.”