Mass. Lawmakers Set Storage Target, Raise RPS, Overturn Rooftop Solar Demand Charge

The Massachusetts solar energy legislature passed a compromise energy bill Tuesday evening Solar Project with several wins for Solar Project the clean energy solar energy industry.

The bill raises the renewable Solar Project Solar Project portfolio standard, such that the state’s renewable Solar Project energy supply will need to increase by 2 percent annually from 2020 through 2029, before reverting back to 1 percent. The language also authorizes solar damper the study of an additional 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind.

In a rare move,solar solar inverter energy  lawmakers stepped in to overturn a demand charge for residential solar customers that Solar Project utility Eversource had gotten Solar Project approved by regulators. The bill also imposed a minimum share of clean energy required to solar damper serve peak hours and set an energy storage deployment target of solar energy 1,000 megawatt-hours by Solar Project 2025.

The bill did not deliver on the solar damper solar industry’s desire to lift the net-metering cap solar energy on Solar Project larger solar slewing drive systems.
 

It awaits Governor Charlie Baker’s signature.

Demand charge remanded

Eversource solar slewing drive earlier this year won approval for the first rooftop solar demand charge approved by regulators solar inverter for a major utility. It would be non-coincident with solar inverter the system peak, and it would apply to customers who lacked advanced metering, solar slewing drive meaning they would have little means of solar slewing drive knowing when they will actually get charged.

The new legislation clarifies the legal framework that Eversource used to impose the charge.

"It’s solar tracker actuator one of these rare instances of the legislature inserting themselves into this discussion Photovoltaic holder on behalf of customers," said David Gahl, director of state affairs, Northeast, at the Solar Energy Industries Association. "The final language doesn’t solar inverter prohibit the utility from proposing solar damper demand charges, but solar inverter it solar inverter provides more solar inverter direction about how those demand charges would be calculated."

Going forward, solar inverter any demand charges would have to be solar inverter pegged to system peak solar inverter demand.

Additionally, the language requires that “the distribution company regularly informs affected customers of the manner solar tracker actuator in which demand charges are assessed and of solar inverter ways in which said customers might manage and reduce demand.” That’s a watered-down version of the Senate bill's language, which would have required advanced metering so that the customers could find out for themselves solar slewing drive what their real-time usage looks like.

This outcome Photovoltaic holder sets a precedent for other utilities that might be considering charges to impose on their own solar customers.

Should other utilities solar inverter go for a solar damper charge that doesn’t steer individual behavior toward peak demand reduction and imposes costs without giving solar inverter customers tools to respond to them, it’s possible that such action will draw political backlash. It’s reminiscent of the legislative reversal slewing drive of Nevada solar inverter regulators’ infamous net metering solar damperdecision.

Multiple wins for storage

The bill solar slewing drive establishes a clean peak, whereby regulators will set a minimum percentage of kilowatt-hour solar inverter sales during seasonal peak hours that must be met from solar inverter solar inverter clean energy. This ensures that the growth of renewables generation overall does not rely solar damper exclusively on solar damper an expansion of gas peaker plants to meet the fast ramps required to Photovoltaic holder balance the slewing drive grid.

The clean peak will start solar tracker actuator at the current baseline in 2019 and gradually increase each year by at least 0.25 solar tracker actuator percent. This will likely incentivize the deployment solar damper of energy storage, to make clean solar damper energy dispatchable for slewing drive peak hours.

Baker, who has emerged as one of the most vocal supporters of energy storage policy currently residing solar damper in Photovoltaic holder a U.S. solar damper governor's slewing drive mansion, had introduced this idea himself back in March.

The solar inverter 1,000-megawatt-hour target also puts additional urgency behind the administration's ramp-up solar inverter in storage deployment. The Department of Energy Resources solar damper had previously set a goal slewing drive of 200 megawatt-hours by 2020.

That sets up solar damper a parallel with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's target of 1,500 megawatts of storage deployed by 2025. Both solar inverter states solar slewing drive are racing to jump-start an energy storage industry hub in slewing drive the solar inverter Northeast.

Pour one out for net metering

Meanwhile, the legislation did solar inverter not address raising the net-metering cap for commercial and solar tracker actuator community solar projects. Three utility territories have hit their caps solar inverter already, which means projects need to pencil out economically without the benefit of full retail-rate compensation for solar exports to the grid (the cap doesn't apply to solar damper residential systems).

As far as solar tracker actuator policy outcomes solar damper go, the removal of net metering is easily the solar industry's least favorite. The withdrawal symptoms elicited bitterness in the solar industry's otherwise positive comments on the passage.

"The bill failed to solar damper  raise the net  Photovoltaic holder metering caps, a move that means some Bay State businesses and communities that want to go solar are unable to do so," said Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s vice president solar tracker actuator of state affairs. "Across solar inverter the state, solar projects, jobs and millions of dollars of investment remain Photovoltaic holder slewing drive stalled."

"While it helpfully clarifies the structure for new charges for solar customers, there remains uncertainty in the Commonwealth’s solar market due to caps on net metering that have been hit," said Janet Gail Besser, EVP of the Northeast Clean Energy Council, in a statement.

It would be hard to solar damper blame market uncertainty on the solar inverter caps themselves, as solar inverter they were transparently communicated solar slewing drive years ago. Projects that received a NEM allocation prior to the cap will continue coming online, likely into next year. New projects in areas that have hit the cap must contemplate receiving a wholesale market rate solar damper , just a fraction solar inverter of the compensation that would have come from net Photovoltaic holder slewing drive metering.

The state solar slewing drive  has solar damper not embarked on any grand proceedings to chart a future beyond net metering. The Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target incentive program is in the final stages of regulatory approval; it's not a replacement for solar inverter NEM, but will provide a new and different stream of solar slewing drive ratepayer funds to encourage solar development.

"The DOER understands the stop-and-start nature of the Massachusetts solar industry isn’t good for business and purposefully included a mechanism solar slewing drive within the SMART regulation that would circumvent any NEM cap-related constraints," said Austin Perea, a solar market Photovoltaic holder analyst at solar inverter GTM Research.

At the end of the solar damper day, solar developers in solar damper Massachusetts face high costs for permitting, labor, land slewing drive acquisition solar inverter and solar slewing drive racking, but also enjoy an unusually generous policy environment.

"You do have higher costs, but you have by far the most lucrative incentive solar damper solar inverter market in the U.S., and you have slewing drive high retail rates," he said.