The Public Utilities Commission will hold an evidentiary hearing Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 9:30 a.m. in Warwick on Rhode Island Energy's proposed net metering tariff, according to a notice dated Nov. 6. The filing includes the fixed-credit program that the 2026 state budget law requires the commission to approve by Dec. 1, and a solar developer is contesting how projects prove they are "under construction."
What the tariff does
Rhode Island Energy's Aug. 14 filing implements Article 11 of the budget law, House Bill 7127 Substitute A. It lowers the cap on ground-mounted remote net metering from 275 to 175 megawatts and moves the date by which projects must be operating or under construction from July 1, 2030, to Dec. 31, 2032.
It also creates an optional fixed credit of $0.19 per kilowatt-hour for public entities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits, multi-municipal collaboratives, commercial and industrial customers with financing arrangements, and community remote systems. The credit rises 2.75% a year, compounded, beginning Jan. 1, 2028, and lasts 25 years from the election. The election is one-time and irrevocable.
The Division of Public Utilities and Carriers recommends approval with corrections, including repeating the rate, the escalator and the interconnection and election dates on the election form and fixing a statutory citation. Rhode Island Energy agrees with all of the Division's recommendations, according to its Oct. 22 rebuttal.
Where the parties disagree
Revity Energy LLC, a solar developer, objects to the proof Rhode Island Energy would require. The tariff asks for a self-attestation, photographs or purchase orders, and "proof of full legal authority to construct the project either with a non-appealable permit or equivalent." Revity proposes authority to "commence" the work instead. The utility says that would let projects with only preliminary site work, such as limited clearing, occupy scarce capacity. Revity says 87.596 megawatts of the 175-megawatt cap were allocated, based on the utility's reporting, and that the definition will matter most in 2031 and 2032.
Revity and Ameresco also want the 25-year clock to start at the authorization to interconnect rather than the election. Revity's memorandum says the average gap between signing the original interconnection agreement and that authorization was 692 days across 10 projects, and a 6.155-megawatt West Warwick project waited from May 6, 2021, to Dec. 24, 2025. Rhode Island Energy says the statute sets the term "from the date of such election."
The utility does not oppose language from Ameresco stating that the credit cannot be reduced during the term. It opposes Revity's request to treat an election as a binding contract, because the commission has described net metering as tariff-based, and it says it already publishes remaining capacity on its interconnection website. The Office of Energy Resources has intervened; the docket lists no position memorandum from it.
Deadlines
Parties must file any settlement by Tuesday, Nov. 10. Written public comments are due to the commission clerk by 4 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 16, and anyone can comment without intervening. The commission also takes comment by Zoom before the hearing.
