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Remote Net Metering Law Approved
As amended on June 22 2023 the bill revises criteria for remote the net metering program established by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU). It allows for solar facilities of up to 10 MW, and multiple public entities to serve as host customers for a single facility with the system size based on total aggregate electricity use of all receiving accounts, not just the host’s customer accounts. It also removes the requirement that projects be located on a site with existing load.
The bill also sets an annual goal of generating an additional 75 MW, provides the same incentives for participating projects as for those participating in the non-low-and-middle-income segment of the community solar energy program, and directs the BPU to develop an application and approval process within 120 days of the effective date.
As amended on 10/17/23 the amended bill would (1) allow electric utilities to recover all costs incurred in the implementation of or compliance with the remote net metering program, including credits provided to participating customers; (2) remove a provision to allow more than one public entity to collectively act as a host customer for a solar energy project; (3) require each solar energy project to be metered separately; and (4) provide technical corrections to certain language and definitions.
As introduced:
Would amend current law concerning remote net metering to allow a public entity customer of an electric public utility to participate in and receive bill credits for a solar energy project that is remotely located on property owned or leased by the public entity or on other eligible property within the service territory of the appropriate utility. A solar energy project eligible to participate in this program would have to meet the following requirements:
- be located in the same electric public utility’s service territory as the host customer and receiving customer;
- have a minimum number of 10 participating public entity customer utility accounts as receiving customers;
- be situated on land owned or leased by any public entity or on private commercial rooftops;
- have a facility size calculated based upon the total aggregate electricity usage of the receiving customer public entity customer utility accounts to be served by the project based on the total usage of each proposed customer account over the previous twelve months; and
- be less than 4MW in total size based on the approved alternating current rating of the facility.
