Consultants of the Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission calls a law that prioritizes renewable net metering for the hospital and public schools \u201canother burden\u201d for non-net metered customers.<\/p>\n
Georgetown Consulting Group, as part of an interim report presented to the CPUC yesterday, said the modified Public Law 18-75 adds more burden to customers not using the net metering program.<\/p>\n
PL 18-75 and its subsequent modifications prioritize net energy metering capacity for health and education facilities. Through this law, the Legislature finds that \u201cthe only way to reduce utility costs is to utilize renewable energy sources to offset the electricity or other utility required for the operations of [the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. and Public School System].<\/p>\n
If implemented, the law would reduce the utility costs for CHCC and PSS at the \u201cdirect expense of increasing costs to all of CUC\u2019s other customers,\u201d the CPUC consultants said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is because the fixed capacity and delivery system infrastructure cost and non-fuel [operating and maintenance] cost avoided by [the hospital and public schools] does not somehow go away because of this change to the law,\u201d the consulting group wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead the costs avoided by CHCC and PSS will by necessity be collected by CUC from its other customers,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
This results in \u201cyet another burden\u201d to CUC\u2019s non-net metered customers, the group writes, from what they believe is already a \u201cflawed\u201d net metering system with an \u201cexcessive maximum 10 megawatt capacity limitation\u201d and its allowable 30 percent net energy metering capacity penetration level.<\/p>\n
The consultants also said that while the law requires \u201cprioritization,\u201d it does not state what this means.<\/p>\n
Perhaps this means that CHCC and PSS will not be handled on a first come, first serve-basis and will simply go to the front of the queue, the consultants said.<\/p>\n
But without clarification, this would seem to leave the matter of prioritization to CUC\u2019s own interpretation, since the law states that its implementation will not require the review or approval of CPUC.<\/p>\n
As the report states, CUC has not yet proposed or adopted any rules for the purpose of this implementation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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