|
RCA issues regs for operating community energy facilities
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has issued regulations for the operation of community energy facilities. This type of facility is an entity operating for electrical power generation, in which an individual power consumer can subscribe to rights to part of the power from the facility.
In particular this arrangement can be used for a community solar farm, in which consumers can subscribe to the power generated by a certain number of solar panels. The result can be the economies of scale and the efficiencies of a commercial solar farm, coupled with a power supply arrangement similar to the use of consumer installed and operated solar panels.
For example, Chugach Electric Association has recently built and put into operation a community energy solar farm in Anchorage.
Legislation in 2024 In 2024 the Alaska Legislature passed legislation requiring electricity utilities to allow the connection of eligible community energy facilities to the utilities' electrical systems. The resulting statutes define a community energy facility as "a renewable energy generating facility under a certificated electric utility's community energy tariff that is not connected to a retail consumer's electricity meter and provides all or a portion of the electrical energy requirements of the retail consumer." The statutes require the RCA to maintain regulations for the oversight of community energy facilities -- hence the new regulations that the commission has now issued.
The regulations require an electricity utility to allow the interconnection of a community energy facility to the utility's infrastructure in accordance with the utility's interconnection standards. The utility must purchase energy generated by the facility. To be eligible for connection, the facility must be owned and managed by a subscriber organization or an electric utility and be located within an electric utility's service area. The owner and operator of a community energy facility must provide a list of subscribers to the facility and report the share of the energy produced each month that is attributable to each subscriber.
Community energy tariff Any electricity utility that is required to provide a community energy program must file a community energy tariff with the RCA by May 31, 2026. The tariff must specify parameters such as interconnection rules and the maximum aggregate nameplate community energy capacity that the utility can accept. Other components of the tariff may include factors such as reasonable costs associated with the connection of a facility.
An electricity utility will require a community energy facility to report the amount of electrical energy generated by the facility and the share of that energy attributed to each subscriber during each of the utility's billing periods. If during a billing period the utility provided more power to a subscriber than was attributed to the subscriber from the facility, the utility can use its applicable power supply rates to bill the subscriber for the excess power that the utility supplied. If, on the other hand, if the facility attributed more power to the subscriber than the utility supplied to the subscriber, the utility must credit the subscriber's account for the excess power, using the utility's avoided energy rate as specified in the utility's tariff.
A utility can also recover from community energy program subscribers any reasonable costs incurred by the utility in association with the program.
-ALAN BAILEY
| 