Report Title:

Net Energy Metering; Public Utilities

Description:

Removes the cap on the allowable customer-generator generating capacity; incrementally increases the percentage of the total energy generating capacity produced by eligible customer-generators under the net energy metering law; changes billing period to an annual basis. (SD1)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1018

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

H.D. 2

STATE OF HAWAII

S.D. 1


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO NET ENERGY METERING.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Section 269-101, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§269-101 Definitions. As used in this part:

"Eligible customer-generator" means a metered residential or commercial customer, including a government entity, of an electric utility who owns and operates a solar, wind turbine, biomass, or hydroelectric energy generating facility, or a hybrid system consisting of two or more of these facilities, [with a capacity of not more than fifty kilowatts,] that is:

(1) Located on the customer's premises;

(2) Operated in parallel with the utility's transmission and distribution facilities;

(3) In conformance with the utility's interconnection requirements; and

(4) Intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer's own electrical requirements.

"Net energy metering" means measuring the difference between the electricity supplied through the electric grid and the electricity generated by an eligible customer-generator and fed back to the electric grid over [a monthly] an annual billing period; provided that:

(1) Net energy metering shall be accomplished using a single meter capable of registering the flow of electricity in two directions;

(2) An additional meter or meters to monitor the flow of electricity in each direction may be installed with the consent of the customer-generator, at the expense of the electric utility, and the additional metering shall be used only to provide the information necessary to accurately bill or credit the customer-generator, or to collect solar, wind turbine, biomass, or hydroelectric energy generating system performance information for research purposes;

(3) If the existing electrical meter of an eligible customer-generator is not capable of measuring the flow of electricity in two directions, the electric utility shall be responsible for all expenses involved in purchasing and installing a meter that is able to measure electricity flow in two directions;

(4) If an additional meter or meters are installed, the net energy metering calculation shall yield a result identical to that of a single meter; and

(5) An eligible customer-generator who already owns an existing solar, wind turbine, biomass, or hydroelectric energy generating facility, or a hybrid system consisting of two or more of these facilities, is eligible to receive net energy metering service in accordance with this part."

SECTION 2. Section 269-102, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

"(a) Every electric utility shall develop a standard contract or tariff providing for net energy metering, and shall make this contract available to eligible customer-generators, upon request, on a first-come-first-served basis until the time that the total rated generating capacity produced by eligible customer-generators equals [.5 per cent] the following percentage of the electric utility's system peak demand[.] in each of the following years:

(1) 1.0 per cent in 2006;

(2) 1.5 per cent in 2008;

(3) 2.0 per cent in 2010;

(4) 2.5 per cent in 2012;

(5) 3.0 per cent in 2014;

(6) 3.5 per cent in 2016;

(7) 4.0 per cent in 2018;

(8) 4.5 per cent in 2020; and

(9) 5.0 per cent in 2022."

SECTION 3. Section 269-104, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"[[]§269-104[]] Additional customer-generators. Notwithstanding section 269-102, an electric utility is not obligated to provide net energy metering to additional customer-generators in its service area when the combined total peak generating capacity of all eligible customer-generators served by all the electric utilities in that service area furnishing net energy metering to eligible customer-generators equals [.5 per cent] the percentage of the system peak demand of those electric utilities[.] as provided in section 269-102(a)."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.