Amendment #11 to H4377

small hydropower renewable tariff

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

Section X. Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule, regulation or procedure to the contrary, there is hereby created a small hydro tariff program for small hydropower facilities.  A “small hydropower facility” is a facility in Massachusetts with a FERC-rated capacity of 2 megawatts or less, using water to generate electricity that is connected to a distribution company.  The “small hydro tariff” is the default service kilowatt-hour rate of the local distribution company that receives electricity from a small hydropower facility. An electric distribution company shall pay a small hydropower facility monthly for electricity it received from such a facility based on the kilowatt hours of electricity the distribution company received from the small hydropower facility multiplied by the small hydro tariff. A participating small hydropower facility shall notify a distribution company that it intends to deliver electricity pursuant to the small hydro tariff program and shall comply with the distribution company’s applicable reporting and interconnection requirements. No more than 60 megawatts of small hydropower aggregate capacity state wide shall be permitted to participate in the small hydro tariff.