Utilities must explain charges and seek contracts for small renewable projects

Utilities with more than 50,000 customers must identify and describe administrative charges on bills for customer-funded work. This applies to transmission and distribution utilities with more than 50,000 customers. An administrative charge is an added fee for services on work a customer directly funds, such as a connection or line extension. Direct labor and materials costs are excluded from this definition when the bill says they are included in those costs.

The law sets requirements for how certain utility charges and customer information appear on bills. The charge-label rules cover costs other than electricity supply, delivery, and transmission, including costs for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and low-income assistance programs. Investor-owned utilities must show the regulator's toll-free consumer help number and describe the help available. If the regulator finds bill information misleading, deceptive, or inaccurate, it must set up a process requiring the utility to correct it. At the Public Advocate's request, the regulator must investigate whether bill information is accurate. If certain expenses are left out of a customer's delivery cost, the utility cannot label them as public policy charges or use a similar label. When practical without added costs for ratepayers, the utility must briefly explain them or link to an objective explanation.

The utility regulator must set billing and disclosure rules for shared energy projects. The rules cover distributed energy projects whose customers share a financial interest under the specified net energy billing arrangements. The rules must show savings rates clearly and consistently and identify all charges. Breaking these standards counts as an unfair trade practice.

The utility regulator must seek contracts for energy from eligible small renewable projects. Low-income customers qualify through utility benefits or a state or federal program for which low income or limited assets are eligibility criteria, if they qualified within the prior 12 months. Moderate-income households earn no more than 150% of the median income for their county or metropolitan area. Projects must be no larger than 200 kilowatts, serve only qualifying low- or moderate-income households, be wholly customer- or cooperative-owned, and provide bill discounts or payments. The regulator must select a project if at least one eligible bid meets the requirements and costs no more than the value of the customer credits set for the bidding process. The law directs the regulator to seek up to 4 megawatts of energy. Contracts may last up to 20 years. They must protect customer information, with exceptions for lawful debt collection, credit reporting, or law enforcement process. Ratepayers share contract costs and direct financial benefits under the referenced law. Projects must be placed in service on or after August 1, 2026. The regulator must begin the competitive bidding process by September 1, 2026.

The utility regulator must update rules for certain net energy billing agreements. These rules apply to distributed energy projects and residential accounts under the specified net energy billing arrangements. The rules must exempt projects wholly owned by the customers receiving their billing credits from specified requirements. Customers may have multiple agreements for projects in which they own an interest. A residential account without an ownership interest in the project may have no more than one agreement.