Amendment #396 to H3400

Limiting Administrative Costs and Encouraging Significant Investments in Energy Efficiency

Representatives Jones of North Reading, Peterson of Grafton, Hill of Ipswich, Poirier of North Attleborough, deMacedo of Plymouth, Barrows of Mansfield, Beaton of Shrewsbury, Boldyga of Southwick, Durant of Spencer, Ferguson of Holden, Frost of Auburn, Gifford of Wareham, Howitt of Seekonk, Humason of Westfield, Kuros of Uxbridge, Hunt of Sandwich, Smola of Palmer and Wong of Saugus move to amend the bill by inserting after section 20 the following section:—

“SECTION AA. Section 19 of chapter 25 of the General Laws, as amended by chapter 209 of the acts of 2012, is hereby amended by striking out subsection (c) in its entirety and replacing it with the following subsection:-

(c) Electric and gas energy efficiency program funds shall be allocated to customer classes, including the low-income residential subclass, in proportion to their contributions to those funds; provided; however, that a minimum of 75 per cent of the total amount expended on electric and gas efficiency programs shall be allocated for participant grants, rebates, or incentives; provided; however, rebate incentives provided to program participants shall be aimed at encouraging significant investments in energy efficiency, shall be available to participants in a tiered and performance-based structure that provides a base incentive for meeting minimum standards of energy efficiency performance and bonus incentives for achieving incremental performance targets and each incentive shall not be granted to a program participant more than once per property address; provided, further, that at least 10 per cent of the amount expended for electric energy efficiency programs and at least 20 per cent of the amount expended for gas energy efficiency programs shall be spent on comprehensive low-income residential demand side management and education programs. The low-income residential demand side management and education programs shall be implemented through the low-income weatherization and fuel assistance program network and shall be coordinated with all electric and gas distribution companies in the commonwealth with the objective of standardizing implementation. Such programs shall be screened only through cost-effectiveness testing which compares the value of program benefits to program costs to ensure that a program is designed to obtain energy savings and system benefits with value greater than the costs of the program. In calculating cost-effectiveness prior to authorizing such programs and during program reviews, the department shall not rely solely on calculations of participant expenses and benefits and shall, at minimum, conduct and consider a program administrator cost test, or PACT, for the purposes of evaluating the extent to which such program are encouraging and leveraging additional participant investments.”.