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Virginia Bills Introduced and Referred to Senate Commerce and Labor Committee
Two bills have been introduced in Virginia promoting retail electric choice and net metering legislation.
Senate Bill SB591 (McPike) – This bill would promote retail choice for electricity customers, by (1) reducing the minimum required annual demand for an electric customer to be served by a retail supplier from 5MW to 1MW; (2) allowing any electric customer, regardless of demand, to be served by a retail electric supplier on a 100% renewable energy product (currently this is only allowed if the incumbent utility does not have such a product; as both investor-owned utilities in Virginia have such a product, effectively there is no choice for mass market customers); and (3) decreases the required written notice period from five years to six months for certain electric energy customers to return to service by Dominion Energy Virginia after purchasing electric energy from other suppliers.
Senate Bill SB346 (Subramanyam) – The bill would (1) require utilities to pay $1/kWh per day for the costs of lost electricity production for any delays in net metering beyond the regulatory notice period required by the SCC; (2) require an eligible customer-generator to bear all reasonable costs of equipment required for interconnection to the supplier’s electric distribution system, including controls, tests, or liability insurance; and (3) permit utilities to recover costs for electric distribution grid transformation projects that support the interconnection of solar projects owned or contracted by eligible customer-generators.
