Electricity: eligible fuel cell customer-generators.

Existing law establishes a net energy metering program that is available to an eligible fuel cell customer-generator, which is defined as a customer of an electrical corporation and, among other things, uses a fuel cell electrical generating facility with capacity of not more than one megawatt. Existing law requires that the net metering calculation be made by measuring the difference between the electricity supplied to the eligible fuel cell customer-generator and the electricity generated by the eligible fuel cell customer-generator and fed back to the electrical grid over a 12-month period. Existing law requires that an electrical corporation determine if the eligible fuel cell customer-generator was a net consumer or producer of electricity during the 12-month period. For purposes of making this determination, existing law requires that the electrical corporation aggregate the electrical load of the eligible fuel cell customer-generator under the same ownership. This bill would increase the capacity of a fuel cell electrical generating facility to not more than 3 megawatts. The bill would prohibit the net rate at which electricity fed back to the electrical grid by an eligible fuel cell customer-generator using a fuel cell electrical generating facility with a capacity of more than one megawatt from exceeding one megawatt. Existing law provides that a net energy metering contract or tariff must be identical, as specified, to the contract or tariff to which a customer would be assigned if the customer was not an eligible fuel cell customer-generator, and that any charge that would increase an eligible fuel cell customer-generator's costs beyond those of other customers in the rate class to which the eligible fuel cell customer-generator would otherwise be assigned, including an interconnection charge, may not form a part of net energy metering tariffs. The Public Utilities Commission's Electric Rule 21 establishes a tariff that describes the interconnection, operating, and metering requirements for generation facilities to be connected with an electrical corporation's distribution system. This bill would provide that fuel cell projects with a capacity of not more than one megawatt would not be exempt from reasonable interconnection charges established pursuant to Electric Rule 21. The bill would also require the commission, when revising Electric Rule 21, to consider the ratepayer and system benefits of larger baseload fuel cell projects. Because the bill would require an expansion of the above-described net energy metering programs and would require an order or decision of the commission to implement, a violation of which is a crime, these provisions would impose a state-mandated local program by expanding the definition of a crime. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.