SECTION 1. Section 19 of chapter 25 of the General Laws, as most recently amended by chapter 209 of the acts of 2012, is hereby further amended by striking section (d) in its entirety and inserting, in place thereof, the following section:—

(d) There shall be a voluntary accelerated rebate pilot program which shall be made available to up to 10 eligible commercial or industrial electric users in each utility service territory. Multiple locations of the same customer shall not be aggregated for purposes of meeting this threshold

Eligible customers electing to participate in the accelerated pilot program shall notify the appropriate electric distribution company, gas company or municipal aggregator, hereafter known as the program administrator, on or before January 31 of each calendar year during the pilot program.

After initial notice, the utilities may, alone or in coordination with other program administrators, determine the best candidates for the pilot using the following criteria: (a) the scope and completeness of the customer’s proposed programs (b) the likelihood of energy, environmental or related savings from said program (c) the customer’s capacity to implement such measures (d) the ability to use measures in other facilities owned by similar industries.  Should more than 10 customers indicate their desire to participate in said pilot the utilities shall alone or in coordination with other program administrators, determine the best customers using the criteria above.  

Customers electing to participate shall be eligible for financial support of up to 100 per cent of the cost for qualified energy efficiency measures, as determined by the program administrator, using criteria included in the efficiency investment plans established by section 21. Total rebate levels for participating customers in any year of the pilot program shall not exceed 90 per cent of the amount the customer was charged for energy efficiency programs during calendar year 2012.

A participating customer shall not aggregate a rebate from any year in which the customer does not participate in the pilot program. Qualified energy efficiency measures shall include cost-effective energy efficiency program measures approved by the applicable program administrator recognized by the department using criteria under section 21; provided, however, that up to 15 per cent of any accelerated rebate may be used for other improvements that support energy efficiency improvements made under a program approved by the department or emission reductions, including, but not limited to, infrastructure improvements, metering, circuit level technology and software. Customers opting to receive an accelerated rebate shall be ineligible for other energy efficiency program rebates under section 21 during the period in which they participate in the pilot program. All qualified installations shall be substantially completed by the end of the program, and shall be subject to verification and review by the department. Electric and gas distribution companies shall recalibrate their energy efficiency goals, as reviewed by the energy efficiency advisory council under subsection (c) of said section 21, to reflect the rebates provided to any customer electing to participate in this pilot program. Nothing in this subsection shall be construed to cause a decrease in the funding of the low-income residential demand-side management and education programs funded under this section.