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In Maine the Public Utilities Commission issues a Notice of Rulemaking seeking comments in to amend its Net Energy Billing (NEB) rule.  Excerpts from Order are provided below:

{***} Through this Notice, the Commission initiates a rulemaking proceeding to amend its Net Energy Billing (NEB) rule, Chapter 313 to clarify that the monetization of unused or expired credits does not include the credits that are assigned to the facility account of an eligible NEB facility.

{***}III. PROPOSED RULE PROVISIONS 

The proposed amendments to the rule are described below. 

Definitions (Section 2) 

The proposed amendment creates a definition for “Facility Account” to provide support and clarity to the amendments described below with respect to section 3 of the rule. 

NEB Requirements (Section 3) 

The proposed rule amends subsections 3(E), 3(I)(3), and 3(J)(3) to require that the allocation of credits must equal 100 percent and that any credits not allocated to a customer or subscriber are allocated to the Facility Account. This language also codifies the requirement that has been in the approved application since 2020. The application provides that a Project Sponsor include the “facility account” in its “multiple account list” and that the “sum of the percentages must equal 100%.” See Maine Public Utilities Commission Amendments to Chapter 313 – Net Energy Billing, Docket No. 2019- 00197, PUC Chapter 313 – Customer Net Energy Billing Agreement Application at 2 (April 15, 2020). 

Expired credits to LIAP (Section 3(I)(3)) 

As set forth above, the rulemaking conducted in Docket No. 2023-00284 amended subsection 3(I)(3) to require that the value of unused (or expired) credits be monetized by the utilities and remitted to the Commission to help fund the LIAP program. CMP has recently brought to the Commission’s attention the fact that some NEB projects are undersubscribed, that is, participating customers are subscribed to less than 100 percent of the output of the facility. The transmission and distribution utility must be able to allocate credits relating to all the output of the facility. Pursuant to the NEB agreement, credits that are not allocated to a designated subscriber are assigned to the project’s facility account. Usually this is a small amount but recently, as more Project Sponsors push to complete their projects prior to December 31, 2024, which is the deadline for NEB projects to reach commercial operation pursuant to 35-A M.R.S. § 3209-A(7), there have been projects that are coming on line with allocations among subscribers that fall far below 100%. In these cases, the utility must allocate the remaining credits to the facility account. Because the facility accounts do not have sufficient usage to utilize the credits, the credits will expire. These expired credits will then be monetized and remitted to fund the LIAP program. The cost associated with the credits that are monetized and remitted are passed on to the general body of ratepayers through each utility’s stranded cost rates. 

In addition, the amount that must be recovered through stranded cost rates from an expired credit far exceeds the cost of a used credit. Pursuant to subsection 3(I)(3) of Chapter 313, the monetized value of an expired credit includes transmission, distribution and standard offer rate components. The lost revenue recovered through stranded costs associated with a used credit is only this distribution component. Currently, the distribution component is approximately 25% of the total rate.

The intent of Chapter 230 was to provide an opportunity for the expired credits of subscribers to be monetized for the benefit of LIAP. The Commission interprets the intent of the statute requiring the monetization and remittance of unused credits was to apply only to the credits that are available to customers who have subscribed to an NEB project. The Commission does not believe the statute was intended to capture the expired credits that were allocated to the Project Sponsor’s facility account for the sole purpose of bringing the allocation to a sum of 100%. The proposed rule adds language to section 3(I)(3) to explain that “unused” or expired credits that must be monetized and made available for the LIAP program do not include the unused or expired credits that have been allocated to the facility account of the eligible facility.

… Interested persons may file final written comments on the proposed amendments in CMS, in Docket No. 2024-00356, no later than January 27, 2025.” {***}

Notice of Rulemaking (12/18/2024) 

2024-00356  (12/03/2024) 

Public Utilities Commission Amendments To Net Energy Billing