On October 7, 2024, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (the “Board”) issued a Notice of Proposed Substantial Changes to its previously proposed Community Solar Energy Program regulations (the “Proposed Changes”). The notice addresses prior comments and issues changes to the Board’s September 18, 2023, proposed regulations. The September 18, 2023, proposed regulations were intended to apply to the permanent Community Solar Energy Program (“CSEP”) the Board implemented on August 16, 2023, which replaced the original Pilot Program in existence since 2018.
In the October 7, 2024, notice, the Board invited comments to be submitted by December 6, 2024.
What You Need to Know:
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has proposed the following final changes to its regulation for the Permanent Community Solar Program:
- Permitted Locations for Community Solar Projects Expanded to Include Mining Sites
- Relaxed Restrictions on Co-Location
- Provided for Electric Distribution Company’s Right to Participate
- Modified Regulations for Municipal Automatic Enrollment Projects
- Provided that Projects Under 1 MW Will Require EDC Conditional Approval
- Restored Provisions Requiring EDC Telemetry
The Proposed Changes have the following effects:
Permitted Location for Community Solar Projects Expanded to Include Mining Sites. The Proposed Changes would include expanding the permissible sites for a community solar project to include mining sites, including sand and gravel mining sites.
Relaxed Restrictions on Co-Location. Under the Proposed Changes, co-located community solar and/or remote net metered facilities may sum up to a capacity of five MW unless sited on: (i) rooftops of separate buildings on different properties; or (ii) a landfill that is owned by a public entity and is not properly closed at the time of registration, in which case, the total capacity of all the co-located community solar and/or remote net metered facilities may sum up to 10 MW. Co-located net metered facilities shall receive the lowest incentive value available to any of the facilities as if registered either individually or aggregated. The registration packages of such co-located facilities shall include an affidavit accepting the lowest incentive.
Electric Distribution Company’s Right to Participate. If, at the end of an energy year, there is remaining unsubscribed capacity for the CSEP allocated in a megawatt block for an Electric Distribution Company (“EDC”) service territory, such capacity shall roll over into the allocation for the subsequent energy year. In the subsequent energy year, the EDC is eligible to register community solar projects in the CSEP up to the amount of the rolled over capacity in the EDC’s service territory. If the EDC participates, it shall submit a rate filing to the Board for how it intends to recover any costs associated with its community solar projects.
Municipal Automatic Enrollment Projects. Under the Proposed Changes, the Board intends for existing community solar projects to be eligible to serve as Municipal Automatic Enrollment Projects and is proposing to clarify the rule to specify that municipalities may use a public procurement process to do so. Under a Municipal Automatic Enrollment Project, a municipality may automatically enroll resident customers and then allow them to “opt-out” if they choose not to participate. The Proposed Changes provide that a minimum guaranteed bill credit discount for automatically enrolled subscribers be specified by Board Order. In the Proposed Changes the Board also proposes to update the rule to allow the Board to set, by Board Order, an annual limit on the number or capacity of projects that convert to Municipal Automatic Enrollment Projects as well as a limit on the number or capacity of projects that contract with a single municipality. That change is intended to ensure that a small number of municipalities did not take up a large portion of the program’s capacity and thereby limit other municipalities’ access to such an enrollment option. Further, the local government will be able to associate with a Municipal Automatic Enrollment Project located anywhere in the same EDC service territory as the local government whereas the prior proposed regulations provided a 15-mile limitation.
Projects Under 1 MW Will Require EDC Conditional Approval. Projects under 1 MW were previously exempt from being required to obtain an EDC conditional approval. It was decided that this exemption for smaller projects allowed for speculative projects that might later still be rejected for interconnection by the EDC or face high upgrade costs. Therefore, the registration requirement of conditional approval to construct from the EDC will be applied to all community solar projects in order to help prevent speculative projects.
Restoration of Provisions Requiring EDC Telemetry. The Board concluded that it was beneficial for the EDC, through telemetry, to collect production data and measurement of metered production of energy and therefore reversed an earlier decision to remove such requirement.
