HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3281        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3313

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Thomas A. Golden, Jr.

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to modern grid access and customer service.

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PETITION OF:

HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3281        FILED ON: 2/19/2021

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3313

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Second General Court
(2021-2022)

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An Act relative to modern grid access and customer service.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1: Chapter 164 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 92A the following 5 sections:

Section 92B. Preamble. The General Court finds that customer access to a modern grid is a right and the public utility obligation to serve customers requires distribution companies to facilitate such access at reasonable costs and on reasonable terms. The General Court further finds that the capability and accessibility of the Commonwealth’s electrical system must be facilitated by investments in the electric grid that are aligned with the Commonwealth’s ambitious climate, renewable energy, and economic development goals. The implementation and periodic update of grid modernization efforts and formal interconnection standards to ensure fair, reasonable, and transparent customer grid access is essential to the achievement of the Commonwealth’s goals. As the distribution companies pursue grid modernization efforts, related technical, operational, policy and regulatory opportunities and challenges must continuously be examined and addressed to ensure non-discriminatory customer access and to achieve the full potential of a modern grid. Establishing frameworks for continuous and collaborative efforts will assist utilities, regulators, distributed energy resource developers and other stakeholders to timely and effectively address these issues.

The purpose of this Act is to establish standards to ensure reasonable and timely access to the grid for all customers and to ensure that distribution companies undertake investments and process improvements to facilitate the transformation of the Commonwealth’s electrical grid to align with the Commonwealth’s ambitious climate, energy and economic development goals. In addition, this Act directs the Department of Public Utilities (“Department”) to initiate an ongoing, open proceeding within which a standing working group will convene on a periodic basis to make recommendations for improving grid modernization and access through interconnection, metering, customer service, and other rules for the Department and General Court’s consideration and action.

Section 92C. (a) No customer shall be denied the right to interconnect a distributed generation facility, energy storage system or a combined distributed generation facility and energy storage system. The department shall promulgate rules: (i) specifying the average time that may elapse from the date of initial interconnection application to the receipt of an interconnection services agreement for various sizes and types of distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems; and (ii) requiring distribution companies to enable the interconnection of distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems in accordance with the following schedule:

(1) Within 30 days of receipt of the application for facilities and systems with a Maximum Generation Capacity of less than 50 kW.

(2) Within 180 days of receipt of the application for facilities and systems with a Maximum Generation Capacity of 50 kW or greater and less than 500 kW, except for projects studied as part of a group, cluster, or transmission study.

(3) Within 1 year of the execution of the interconnection service agreement for facilities and systems with a Maximum Generation Capacity of 500 kW or greater and any project studied as part of group, cluster, or transmission study.

(b) The following standardized interconnection cost allocations shall apply to customers for distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems: (i) no customer shall be charged more than $50/kW AC of Maximum Generation Capacity to interconnect distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems; and (ii) any costs incurred by the distribution company for interconnecting a distributed generation facility or energy storage system that exceed $50/kW AC of Maximum Generation Capacity shall be included in the distribution company’s revenue requirement and recovered through the company’s rate base.

(c) Rules adopted by the department under this section shall include: (i) provisions to track the performance of distribution companies under these rules; (ii) mechanisms to ensure compliance by distribution companies with the schedule and rules required by this section; (iii) mechanisms to enable customers to seek department review and enforcement of the schedule and rules required by this section; and (iv) provisions for expeditiously resolving disputes between customers and distribution companies.

(d) The department shall establish a mechanism to track utility compliance with subsection (a) and shall establish earning incentive and penalty mechanisms by which the distribution company shall: (i) recover an incentive if the company meets or improves upon the timelines established in subsection (a); and (ii) incur a penalty if the company fails to meet the timelines established in subsection (a). Such mechanism shall be in addition to the mechanisms authorized in subsection (c).

(e) The department shall establish metrics for tracking distribution company interconnection performance and interconnection customer satisfaction. At minimum the department shall establish metrics for: (i) interconnecting distributed generation and energy storage customer satisfaction; (ii) time and cost of interconnection for various types, technologies, and sizes of interconnecting distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems; (iii) frequency of disputes under the interconnection tariff, including disputes resolved through Alternative Dispute Resolution; (iv) rate of deployment of distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems; (v) distribution system energy and capacity needs forecasting and hosting capacity analysis availability, including minimum timeframes for periodic updates to forecasting and hosting capacity analyses; and (vi) rate of improvement or degradation of any of the metrics described above. The department shall direct the distribution companies to report progress on each of these metrics, and such other metrics as determined by the department, every 6 months to the department and the general court.

Section 92D. (a) There is hereby established within the department a permanent and open working group for the purpose of considering improvements to interconnection tariffs consisting of the following members: the chairman of the commonwealth utilities commission, or his or her designee, who shall serve as co-chair; the commissioner of the department of energy resources, or his or her designee, who shall serve as co-chair; and representatives from distribution companies, the distributed generation and energy storage industries, distributed generation and energy storage customer representatives, and such other stakeholders with a substantial interest in the topics addressed by the working group, all of whom shall be appointed by the commissioner of the department of energy resources or his or her designee. The non-chair members of the working group shall be comprised of no less than 2 representatives from each of the distribution companies, no less than 6 representatives from distributed generation and energy storage companies or trade associations representing the distributed generation and energy storage industry in the Commonwealth, and such other representatives as determined appropriate by the commissioner of the department of energy resources or his or her designee. The working group shall meet no less frequently than 4 times per year.

(b) The working group shall study and make recommendations regarding the following topics: (i) cost and best available technology for interconnecting and metering distributed generation and energy storage systems; (ii) means to improve grid reliability and resilience and facilitate improved customer access to a modern grid through distribution system upgrades; (iii) processes for identifying and achieving distribution system upgrade cost avoidance through the use of advanced inverter functions and other non-wires solutions, along with earning sharing mechanisms for capital investment deferrals; (iv) processes and customer service improvements for interconnecting customers adopting distributed generation and energy storage; (v) options for metering distributed generation and energy storage; (vi) interconnection and metering standards for exporting and non-exporting energy storage systems; (vii) interconnection of new technologies, including smart inverters and energy storage; and (viii) without limitation, such other technical, policy, and tariff issues related to and affecting interconnection performance and customer service for distributed generation and energy storage customers in the commonwealth, as determined by the working group. The chairs may jointly create subcommittees of the working group to focus on specific issues of importance, and may invite technical or policy experts to assist the working group in its work.

(c) The department of energy resources shall develop and submit a report detailing consensus recommendations of the working group and, if applicable, additional recommendations for which consensus was not reached to the department and the clerks of the house of representatives and senate with recommendations for improvements to grid modernization oversight and reporting, interconnection tariffs and such other topics designated to the working group in subsection (b), within 180 days of its first meeting, and every 180 days thereafter. Such report shall include consensus recommendations of the working group and, if applicable, additional recommendations for which consensus was not reached. The department shall every 180 days issue an order addressing the recommendations of the working group. The order shall specify those recommendations adopted and explain in detail the reasons for rejecting any recommendations not adopted.

Section 92E. Distribution companies shall submit interconnection reports to the department every 180 days. Such reports shall describe the results of all interconnection applications, including applications that did not result in authorization to interconnect. Such reports shall, at a minimum, include the following information:

(i) Average time elapsed from the date of initial interconnection application to the receipt of authorization to interconnect for various sizes and types of distributed generation and energy storage systems.

(ii) Average time elapsed from the date of initial interconnection application to the distribution company’s commencement of design and construction of required interconnection-related upgrades for various sizes and types of distributed generation and energy storage systems.

(iii) Average time elapsed from the date of issuance of the interconnection agreement to the receipt of authorization to interconnect for various sizes and types of distributed generation and energy storage systems.

(iv) Average cost, per kW AC of Maximum Generation Capacity, for various sizes and types of distributed energy systems that have received authorization to interconnect.

(v) Average cost, per kW AC of Maximum Generation Capacity, for various sizes and types of distributed generation and energy storage systems for which an interconnection study or study was conducted, but which were not interconnected due to the customer’s withdrawal of its application from the interconnection process.

(vi) The number and size, in kW AC, of applications received and the status of those applications.

Section 92F. (a) As used in this section and in sections 92B to 92E, inclusive, the following term shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meaning:-

“Maximum Generation Capability” the maximum injection of power at the point of common coupling, in kW AC, of which a distributed generation, energy storage, or combined distributed generation and energy storage facility is capable, taking into account any power or current injection limiting schemes proposed for the facility that are approved by the distribution company.

(b) Distribution companies shall utilize the Maximum Generation Capacity as the common basis for sizing and reviewing applications within application technical review processes.

SECTION 2. (a) Within 90 days of the effective date of this act, the department of public utilities shall direct distribution companies, as that term is defined in section 1 of chapter 164 of the General Laws, to develop plans to proactively upgrade the transmission and distribution grid to improve grid reliability and resiliency; increase customer access to distributed generation and energy storage, as those terms are defined in said section 1 of said chapter 164; and facilitate improvements to the transmission and distribution grid that are necessary to accelerate the commonwealth’s progress toward transportation electrification, heating electrification, and decarbonization. Such plans shall be submitted to the department for approval within 1 year of the effective date of this act, and upon reasonable intervals thereafter. The department shall promptly consider and approve within 6 months of submittal all prudent investments proposed in such plans, and shall issue a final order directing the companies to implement all approved investments of such plans. The companies shall be permitted to recover all prudently incurred costs for implementing such plans as approved by the department.

(b) Plans developed by the distribution companies under this section shall propose discrete, specific, enumerated investments to the transmission and distribution system that will facilitate grid modernization, greater reliability and resiliency, increased customer access to distributed generation and energy storage, increased transportation electrification, increased building electrification, and increased decarbonization. In developing such plans, the companies shall solicit input from the public, appropriate state agencies, and companies engaged in the development and installation of distributed generation, energy storage, vehicle electrification systems, and building electrification systems.

(c) Plans developed by the distribution companies under this section shall describe in detail how such plans address each of the following elements:

(i) Improvements to the electric transmission or distribution system to improve system resiliency and address potential weather- and disaster-related risks.

(ii) The availability and suitability of new technologies such as smart inverters, controllable load, advanced metering and telemetry, and energy storage for meeting forecasted reliability and resiliency needs.

(iii) Patterns and forecasts of distributed generation and energy storage adoption in the company’s territory, and upgrades that would facilitate increased adoption of such technologies.

(iv) Improvements to the transmission or distribution system that will align with customer preferences for access to distributed generation and energy storage.

(v) Improvements to the transmission or distribution system that will facilitate transportation or building electrification.

(vi) Improvements to the distribution system to facilitate the commonwealth’s clean energy and climate goals.

SECTION 3. The rules required by subsection (a) of section 92C of chapter 164 of the General Laws shall be promulgated by the department of public utilities within 270 days of the effective date of this act.

SECTION 4. The standardized interconnection cost allocations set forth in subsection (b) of section 92C of chapter 164 of the General Laws shall apply to customers for distributed generation facilities and energy storage systems whose applications are submitted after the effective date of this act.

SECTION 5. The mechanism to track utility compliance required by subsection (d) of section 92C of chapter 164 of the General Laws shall be established by the department of public utilities within 1 year of the effective date of this act.

SECTION 6. The department of public utilities shall commence a proceeding to establish metrics for tracking distribution company interconnection performance and interconnection customer satisfaction pursuant to subsection (e) of section 92C of chapter 164 of the General Laws within 180 days of this act.

SECTION 7. Appointments to the working group established by section 92D of chapter 164 of the General Laws shall be made by the commissioner of the department of energy resources or his or her designee within 60 days of the effective date of this act.

SECTION 8. Distribution companies shall submit their first interconnection report pursuant to section 92E of chapter 164 of the General Laws within 180 days of the effective date of this act.