Amendment #9 to S1979

DOER Incentive Technical

Mr. Jones of North Reading moves to amend the bill in section 11 by striking subsections (a) and (b) and inserting in place thereof the following new subsections:-

“SECTION 11. (a) Notwithstanding any general or special law to the contrary, the department of energy resources shall adopt rules and regulations that lower the cost of the commonwealth’s solar incentive programs for the ratepayers of the commonwealth; provided, however, that such rules and regulations shall apply only to new solar generating facilities that become operational after the 1600 megawatts direct current of solar generation has been qualified under subsection (g) of section 11F of chapter 25A.

(b) The department shall develop a statewide solar incentive program to encourage the continued development of solar renewable energy generating sources by residential, commercial, governmental and industrial electricity customers throughout the commonwealth. The department shall, after notice and the opportunity for public comment, promulgate rules and regulations implementing a solar incentive program which: (i) promotes the orderly transition to a stable and self-sustaining solar market at reasonable cost to ratepayers; (ii) considers underlying system costs; (iii) takes into account electricity revenues and any federal or state incentives (iv) minimizes direct and indirect program costs and barriers; (v) features a known or easily estimated budget to achieve program goals through use of a declining adjustable block incentive, a competitive procurement model, tariff, or other declining incentive framework; (vi) differentiates incentive levels to support diverse installation types and sizes that provide unique benefits, including, but not limited to, community-shared solar facilities and municipally-owned solar facilities, and which may include differentiation by utility service territory, the location or the size of the solar renewable energy generating source; (vii) considers environmental benefits; (viii) encourages solar generation where it can provide benefits to the distribution system; (ix) promotes investor confidence through long-term incentive revenue certainty and market stability; and (x) ensure that the costs of the program are shared collectively among all ratepayers of the distribution companies.”