Amendment #16 to H5151

Community Microgrids for Affordability, Equity, and Resilience

Ms. Nguyen of Andover moves to amend the bill by adding the following section:-

SECTION XX. Chapter 164 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking section 1B in its entirety and inserting the following section:- 

Section 1B. (a) The department shall define service territories for each distribution company by March 1, 1998, based on the service territories actually served on July 1, 1997, and following to the extent possible municipal boundaries. After March 1, 1998, until terminated by effect of law or otherwise, the distribution company shall have the exclusive obligation to provide distribution service to all retail customers within its service territory, and no other person, except a government and critical facility microgrid operating pursuant to section 160, shall provide distribution service within such service territory without the written consent of such distribution company which shall be filed with the department and the clerk of the municipality so affected. The department shall limit the distribution service provided by government and critical facility microgrids as necessary and appropriate, but at a minimum, shall establish rules, parameters, and as necessary, tariffs, related to eligible uses of the distribution equipment connected to a distribution company’s electric distribution system by a government and critical facility microgrid.

(b) Each distribution company shall provide its customers with default service and shall offer a default service rate to its customers who have chosen retail electricity service from a non-utility affiliated generation company or supplier but who require electric service because of a failure of such company or the supplier to provide contracted service or who, for any reason, have never chosen or have stopped receiving such service. The distribution company shall procure supply for such service through competitive bidding or through such other process approved by the department, including procurements of varying lengths and in combination with other distribution companies; provided, however, that standard default service rates, excluding time-varying rates and monthly variable service rates, for residential customers shall be changed no less than once every six months. Any department-approved provider of service, including an affiliate of a distribution company, shall be eligible to participate in the competitive bidding process.  The department may require a separate mechanism for recovering certain charges, to be itemized separately on a customer bill, including, but not limited to, those in connection with the wholesale electric markets as administered by ISO New England, Inc. or federal tariffs on imports to such markets. In implementing the provisions of this section, the department shall ensure universal service for all ratepayers and sufficient funding to meet the need therefor.

(c)  Notwithstanding the provisions of section 5D of chapter 25, the department and the department of energy resources shall have access to all information associated with the bids selected by the distribution company pursuant to the competitive bidding process in this section; provided, however that such information shall not be deemed to be a public record as defined in clause 26 of section 7 of chapter 4 and shall not be subject to demand for production under section 10 of chapter 66; provided, however, that aggregates of such information may be prepared and such aggregates shall be public records. 

(d) The department is hereby authorized and directed to promulgate rules and regulations necessary to carry out the provisions of this section, including the procedure for default service procurement and governing a customer's ability to return to the default service after choosing retail access from a non-utility affiliated generation company. 

SECTION 41. Chapter 164 is hereby amended by inserting the following section:- 

Section 160. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-  “Critical facilities and infrastructure”, a building, structure, facility, or other infrastructure located within the commonwealth, for which the loss of electrical service is likely to jeopardize public safety or cyber security, as determined by the municipality in which the building, structure, facility, or other infrastructure is located or the municipal, state, or federal government that owns or controls the real property, building, structure, facility, or other infrastructure. Examples may include, but are not limited to, hospitals, assisted care facilities, emergency shelters, emergency operations centers, restoration staging areas, 911 dispatch centers, fire and police stations, communications infrastructure, water pumping and sewer treatment stations, and correctional facilities.

SECTION 56. (a) Not later than January 1, 2026, the department of public utilities shall open an investigation relative to: (1) the necessary regulatory steps to implement section 155 of chapter 164 of the General Laws; (2) existing administrative or regulatory barriers to the deployment of government and critical facility microgrids, and potential solutions to such administrative and regulatory barriers; and (3) the protection of customers not connected to microgrids, including ensuring there is no shifting of costs for the development and connection of the microgrid to the electric distribution system, impacts to reliability of the electric distribution system once the microgrid is connected and operational, and that customers other than those eligible to be served by the microgrid are not being served by the microgrid.

(b) Not later than August 1, 2026, the department shall issue: (1) guidelines for standards, protocols, and technical requirements needed to enable the development and interconnection of government and critical facility microgrids, which address any identified administrative and regulatory barriers, including guidelines for impact studies required for government and critical facility microgrids to connect to the electric distribution system; (2) government and critical facility microgrid service standards that delineate obligation to provide electric service to customers on the microgrid; (3) require the distribution companies, as defined in section 1 of chapter 164 of the General Laws, to file a proposed model tariff provision, under which government and critical facility microgrids may take service, provided, however that such proposed model tariff provision: (i) shall protect customers not connected to such microgrids from cost shifting; (ii) may charge microgrid customers for services such as back up or standby service;  (iii) may not compensate microgrid customers for the use of fossil fuel electricity generation; (iv) any additional direction for each distribution company to follow in filing the model government and critical facility microgrid tariffs; and (v) provide direction to each distribution company regarding any additional filings or administrative changes necessary to promote the deployment of government and critical facility microgrids.

(c) Not later than January 1, 2027, the distribution companies shall file the model government and critical facility microgrid tariffs and any other filings directed by the department pursuant to subsection (b).

(d) Not later than July 1, 2027, the department shall approve, reject, or modify the government and critical facility microgrid tariffs and other filings made by the distribution companies at the direction of the department. The tariffs and other filings shall be deemed approved if the department does not issue an order by July 1, 2027.

(e) The approved government and critical facility microgrid tariffs and all administrative changes directed by the department pursuant to subsection (b) shall be effective not later than July 1, 2027.

Additional co-sponsor(s) added to Amendment #16 to H5151

Community Microgrids for Affordability, Equity, and Resilience