Amendment #11, as changed to H4377

small hydropower renewable tariff

Representatives Kulik of Worthington, Benson of Lunenburg and Finn of West Springfield move to amend the bill Representatives Kulik of Worthington and others move to amend the bill by adding the following new section:

SECTION. Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule, regulation or procedure to the contrary, there is hereby created a small hydro and anaerobic digestion tariff program for small hydropower facilities and anaerobic digestion net metering facilities in the commonwealth.  For the purposes of this section the following terms shall mean “Small hydropower facility” shall mean a facility in the commonwealth with a Federal Energy Regulatory Comission-rated capacity of 2 megawatts or less, using water to generate electricity that is connected to a distribution company and an “anaerobic digestion net metering facility” shall mean a Class I, Class II, and Class III anaerobic digestion net metering facility that has begun commercial operation on and after January 1, 2015. The “small hydro and anaerobic digestion tariff” shall mean the default service kilowatt-hour rate of the local distribution company as defined in section 1 of chapter 164 of the General Laws that receives electricity from a small hydropower facility or an anaerobic digestion net metering facility. An electric distribution company shall pay a small hydropower facility or an anaerobic digestion net metering facility monthly for electricity it received from such a facility based on the kilowatt hours of electricity the distribution company received from the facility multiplied by the small hydro and anaerobic digestion tariff. A participating small hydropower facility and anaerobic digestion shall notify a distribution company that it intends to deliver electricity pursuant to the small hydro and anaerobic digestion tariff program and shall comply with the distribution company’s applicable reporting and interconnection requirements; provided, however that no more than 50 megawatts of small hydropower and anaerobic digestion aggregate capacity state wide shall be permitted to participate in the small hydro and anaerobic digestion tariff.