                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

SHARED SOLAR PROGRAMS; PHASE I UTILITY (§ 56-594.4)

A. As used in this section:
			&#8220;Administrative cost&#8221; means the reasonable incremental cost to
the investor-owned utility to process subscribers&#8217; bills for the program.
			&#8220;Applicable bill credit rate&#8221; means the dollar-per-kilowatt-hour
rate used to calculate the subscriber&#8217;s bill credit.
			&#8220;Bill credit&#8221; means the monetary value of the electricity, in
kilowatt-hours, generated by the shared solar facility allocated to a subscriber
to offset that subscriber&#8217;s electricity bill.
			&#8220;Dual-use agricultural facility&#8221; means agricultural production
and electricity production from solar photovoltaic panels occurring
simultaneously on the same property.
			&#8220;Gross bill&#8221; means the amount that a customer would pay to the
utility based on the customer&#8217;s monthly energy consumption before any bill
credits are applied.
			&#8220;Incremental cost&#8221; means any cost directly caused by the
implementation of the shared solar program that would not have occurred absent
the implementation of the shared solar program.
			&#8220;Minimum bill&#8221; means an amount determined by the Commission under
subsection D that a subscriber is required to, at a minimum, pay on the
subscriber&#8217;s utility bill each month after accounting for any bill
credits.
			&#8220;Net bill&#8221; means the resulting amount a customer must pay the
utility after deducting the bill credit from the customer&#8217;s monthly gross
bill.
			&#8220;Phase I Utility&#8221; has the same meaning as provided in subdivision
A 1 of § 56-585.1.
			&#8220;Shared solar facility&#8221; means a facility that:

   1. Generates electricity by means of a solar photovoltaic device with a
   nameplate capacity rating that does not exceed 5,000 kilowatts of alternating
   current;

   2. Is interconnected with the distribution system of an investor-owned
   electric utility within the Commonwealth;

   3. Has at least three subscribers;

   4. Has at least 40 percent of its capacity subscribed by customers with
   subscriptions of 25 kilowatts or less; and

   5. Is located on a single parcel of land.
   				&#8220;Shared solar program&#8221; or &#8220;program&#8221; means the
   program created through the adoption of rules to allow for the development of
   shared solar facilities.
   				&#8220;Subscriber&#8221; means a retail customer of a utility that (i)
   owns one or more subscriptions of a shared solar facility that is
   interconnected with the utility and (ii) receives service in the service
   territory of the same utility in whose service territory the shared solar
   facility is interconnected.
   				&#8220;Subscriber organization&#8221; means any for-profit or nonprofit
   entity that owns or operates one or more shared solar facilities. A subscriber
   organization shall not be considered a utility solely as a result of its
   ownership or operation of a shared solar facility. A subscriber organization
   licensed with the Commission shall be eligible to own or operate shared solar
   facilities in more than one investor-owned utility service territory.
   				&#8220;Subscription&#8221; means a contract or other agreement between a
   subscriber and the owner of a shared solar facility. A subscription shall be
   sized such that the estimated bill credits do not exceed the
   subscriber&#8217;s average annual bill for the customer account to which the
   subscription is attributed.
   				&#8220;Utility&#8221; means a Phase I Utility.

B. The Commission shall establish by regulation a program that affords customers
of a Phase I Utility the opportunity to participate in shared solar projects.
Under its shared solar program, a utility shall provide a bill credit for the
proportional output of a shared solar facility attributable to that subscriber.
The shared solar program shall be administered as follows:

   1. The value of the bill credit for the subscriber shall be calculated by
   multiplying the subscriber&#8217;s portion of the kilowatt-hour electricity
   production from the shared solar facility by the applicable bill credit rate
   for the subscriber. Any amount of the bill credit that exceeds the
   subscriber&#8217;s monthly bill, minus the minimum bill, shall be carried over
   and applied to the next month&#8217;s bill.

   2. The utility shall provide bill credits to a shared solar facility&#8217;s
   subscribers for not less than 25 years from the date the shared solar facility
   becomes commercially operational.

   3. The subscriber organization shall, on a monthly basis and in a standardized
   electronic format, and pursuant to guidelines established by the Commission,
   provide to the utility a subscriber list indicating the percentage of shared
   solar capacity attributable to each of the subscribers participating in a
   shared solar facility in accordance with the subscriber&#8217;s portion of the
   output of the shared solar facility.

   4. Subscriber lists may be updated monthly to reflect canceling subscribers
   and to add new subscribers. The utility shall apply bill credits to subscriber
   bills within two billing cycles following the cycle during which the energy
   was generated by the shared solar facility.

   5. Each utility shall, on a monthly basis and in a standardized electronic
   format, provide to the subscriber organization a report indicating the total
   value of bill credits generated by the shared solar facility in the prior
   month, as well as the amount of the bill credit applied to each subscriber.

   6. A subscriber organization may accumulate bill credits in the event that all
   of the electricity generated by a shared solar facility is not allocated to
   subscribers in a given month. On an annual basis and pursuant to guidelines
   established by the Commission, the subscriber organization shall furnish to
   the utility allocation instructions for distributing excess bill credits to
   subscribers.

   7. Any renewable energy certificates associated with a shared solar facility
   shall be distributed to a Phase I Utility to be retired for compliance with
   such Phase I Utility&#8217;s renewable portfolio standard obligations pursuant
   to subsection C of &#xA7; 56-585.5.

   8. Projects shall be entitled to receive incentives when they are located on
   rooftops, brownfields, or landfills, are dual-use agricultural facilities, or
   meet the definition of another category established by the Department of
   Energy pursuant to this section.

C. Each subscriber shall pay a minimum bill, established pursuant to subsection
D, and shall receive an applicable bill credit based on the subscriber&#8217;s
customer class of residential, commercial, or industrial. Each class&#8217;s
applicable credit rate shall be calculated by the Commission annually by
dividing revenues to the class by sales, measured in kilowatt-hours, to that
class to yield a bill credit rate for the class ($/kWh).

D. The Commission shall establish a minimum bill, which shall include the costs
of all utility infrastructure and services used to provide electric service and
administrative costs of the shared solar program. The Commission may modify the
minimum bill over time. In establishing the minimum bill, the Commission shall
(i) consider further costs the Commission deems relevant to ensure subscribing
customers pay a fair share of the costs of providing electric services, (ii)
minimize the costs shifted to customers not in a shared solar program, and (iii)
calculate the benefits of shared solar to the electric grid and to the
Commonwealth and deduct such benefits from other costs. The Commission shall
explicitly set forth its findings as to each cost and benefit, or other value
used to determine such minimum bill.

E. The Commission shall approve a shared solar program of 50 megawatts or six
percent of peak load, whichever is less.

F. The Commission shall establish by regulation a shared solar program that
complies with the provisions of subsections B, C, D, and E by January 1, 2025,
and shall require each utility to file any tariffs, agreements, or forms
necessary for implementation of the program by July 1, 2025. Any rule or utility
implementation filings approved by the Commission shall:

   1. Reasonably allow for the creation of shared solar facilities;

   2. Allow all customer classes to participate in the program;

   3. Encourage public-private partnerships to further the Commonwealth&#8217;s
   clean energy and equity goals, such as state agency and affordable housing
   provider participation as subscribers of a shared solar program;

   4. Not remove a customer from its otherwise applicable customer class in order
   to participate in a shared solar facility;

   5. Reasonably allow for the transferability and portability of subscriptions,
   including allowing a subscriber to retain a subscription to a shared solar
   facility if the subscriber moves within the same utility&#8217;s service
   territory;

   6. Establish standards, fees, and processes for the interconnection of shared
   solar facilities that allow the utility to recover reasonable interconnection
   costs for each shared solar facility;

   7. Adopt standardized consumer disclosure forms;

   8. Allow the utility the opportunity to recover reasonable costs of
   administering the program;

   9. Ensure nondiscriminatory and efficient requirements and utility procedures
   for interconnecting projects;

   10. Allow for the co-location of two or more shared solar facilities on a
   single parcel of land and provide guidelines for determining when two or more
   such facilities are co-located;

   11. Include a program implementation schedule;

   12. Prohibit credit checks as a means of establishing eligibility for
   residential customers to become subscribers;

   13. Require a customer&#8217;s affirmative consent by written or electronic
   signature before providing access to customer billing and usage data to a
   subscriber organization;

   14. Establish customer engagement rules and minimum rules for education,
   contract reviews, and continued engagement;

   15. Require net financial savings for low-income customers, as that term is
   defined in &#xA7; 56-594.3, of at least 10 percent, relative to the
   subscription fee throughout the life of the subscription; and

   16. Allow the utility to recover as the cost of purchased power pursuant to
   &#xA7; 56-249.6 any difference between the bill credit provided to the
   subscriber and the cost of energy injected into the grid by the subscriber
   organization.

G. Within 180 days of finalization of the Commission&#8217;s adoption of
regulations for the shared solar program, a utility shall begin crediting
subscriber accounts of each shared solar facility interconnected in its service
territory, subject to the requirements of this section and regulations adopted
thereto.

HISTORY: 2024, cc. 716, 765.