A. The Commission shall require a Phase II Utility as defined in subdivision A 1 of § 56-585.1 to submit a proposal to the Commission to conduct a pilot program, not to exceed 10 megawatts in the aggregate, in its certificated service territory to allow any school in a public school division in the Commonwealth that generates electricity from a wind-powered or solar-powered renewable energy generation facility located at the school in amounts that exceed the amount of electricity consumed by the school in a billing period, at the option of the school board, to either (i) credit such excess electricity to the metered accounts of one or more other schools in the same public school division, as directed by the school board, in a manner that reduces the amount of electricity for which the other school or schools are billed and provides the other school or schools with a credit against the amount billed to the other school or schools, which credit shall be at the same rate that the school or schools would otherwise be charged for such amount of electricity, without the assessment by the supplier of any service charges or fees in connection with or arising out of such crediting or (ii) receive payment for such excess electricity from the electric utility at the contractually negotiated rate. The duration of any pilot program approved by the Commission pursuant to this section shall be six years.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 56-585.1:7

  • Commission: means the State Corporation Commission. See Virginia Code 56-576
  • Electric utility: means any person that generates, transmits, or distributes electric energy for use by retail customers in the Commonwealth, including any investor-owned electric utility, cooperative electric utility, or electric utility owned or operated by a municipality. See Virginia Code 56-576
  • Rate: means rate charged for any service rendered or to be rendered. See Virginia Code 56-1
  • Renewable energy: means energy derived from sunlight, wind, falling water, biomass, sustainable or otherwise, (the definitions of which shall be liberally construed), energy from waste, landfill gas, municipal solid waste, wave motion, tides, and geothermal power, and does not include energy derived from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power. See Virginia Code 56-576
  • Supplier: means any generator, distributor, aggregator, broker, marketer, or other person who offers to sell or sells electric energy to retail customers and is licensed by the Commission to do so, but it does not mean a generator that produces electric energy exclusively for its own consumption or the consumption of an affiliate. See Virginia Code 56-576

B. The Commission shall, by December 1, 2018, adopt such rules or establish such guidelines as may be necessary for its general administration of the pilot program established under this section.

C. Any electric utility participating in the pilot program established under this section shall report to the General Assembly by December 1 of each year the pilot program is in effect, commencing in 2020, regarding the status of the pilot program’s enrollment and any other information that may be appropriate.

2018, c. 415.