New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 8 - RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Subchapter 9 - COMMUNITY SOLAR ENERGY PILOT PROGRAM RULES
Section 14:8-9.7 - Community solar bill credits

(a) The value of the bill credit shall be set at retail rate, inclusive of supply and delivery charges.

(b) The calculation of the value of the bill credit shall remain in conformance with retail rate, as determined in (a) above and shall remain in effect for the life of the project, defined as no more than 20 years from the date of commercial operation of the project or the period until the project is decommissioned, whichever comes first.

(c) The credit may not be applied to non-by-passable charges.

(d) An annualized period shall be established for each subscriber.

(e) Credits shall carry over from monthly billing period to monthly billing period, with the balance of credits accumulating until the earlier of:

(f) At the end of the annualized period and/or when a subscriber's EDC account is closed and/or at the end of the subscriber's community solar subscription, any excess net bill credits greater than the sum of all appropriate billable charges shall be compensated at the EDC's or BGS provider's avoided cost of wholesale power, as determined from time-to-time, calculated at the nearest node to the point of delivery of the community solar project. The excess compensation must be returned to the subscriber by bill credit, wire transfer, or check.

(g) If a subscriber receives net excess credits for each of the three previous consecutive years, the subscriber organization must resize the subscriber's subscription size to ensure it does not exceed 100 percent of historic annual usage, calculated over the past 12 months, available at the time of the reassessment.

(h) Any generation delivered to the grid that has not been allocated to a subscriber may be "banked" by the project operator in a dedicated project EDC account for an annualized period of up to 12 months. The banked credits may be distributed by the project operator to any new or existing subscriber during that 12-month period, in conformance with subscription requirements set forth in N.J.A.C. 14:8-9.6. At the end of the up to 12-month period, any remaining generation credits shall be compensated at the EDC's or BGS provider's avoided cost of wholesale power, calculated at the nearest node to the point of delivery of the community solar project.

(i) Subscribers must have an active EDC account within the EDC service territory of the community solar project to which they are subscribed.

(j) Subscribers must agree to a remote read smart meter upon EDC request, purchased and installed at EDC cost.

(k) EDCs must make appropriate data available through Green Button Connect My Data (Green Button), subject to appropriate privacy protections. If Green Button capabilities are not available or are insufficient, the EDCs will work with Board staff to determine data sharing mechanisms and requirements between the EDCs and developers.

(l) Board staff shall work with the EDCs to develop a standardized process for sharing subscriber information between subscriber organizations and the EDCs in a way that minimizes errors and administrative costs. As part of this process, the EDCs shall present to Board staff a process by which subscriber organizations can submit the lists of subscribers. This process shall include:

(m) Subscriber organizations shall send, to the relevant EDC via the method determined in ( l) above, a list of subscribers to the project with all appropriate subscriber information, no later than 60 days prior to the first monthly billing period for the community solar project. Additionally, subscriber organizations shall send an updated list to the EDC once per month, following the method determined in ( l) above.

(n) The billing process shall be administered by the EDCs, who shall apply the community solar bill credit to subscribers' utility bills in proportion to each subscriber's share of the community solar project as indicated on the most recent list received from the subscriber organization. Each EDC may decide whether to apply the bill credit as a dollar credit and/or a kWh credit on subscribers' utility bills, so long as the following conditions are met:

(o) The EDCs may sync up the monthly billing period of subscribers and projects, by modifying, with due notice given, the monthly billing period for subscribers upon their first month of participation in the community solar project.

(p) The Board may modify standards to ensure billing accuracy and information sharing.

(q) Community solar projects shall be eligible to apply, via a one-time election prior to the delivery of any energy from the facility, for SRECs or Class I RECs, as applicable, or to any subsequent revision to the solar compensation mechanisms as determined by the Board pursuant to the Clean Energy Act.

(r) The project owner retains full ownership and rights to any renewable energy credits associated with the community solar project's renewable energy generation, unless otherwise determined by contract.

(s) The Board may decide to create one or more additional incentive(s) paid and/or credited to community solar developers for specific types of community solar projects, including, but not limited to, community solar projects located in environmental justice communities and/or LMI projects.

(t) Nothing in this section prohibits the inclusion of storage in a community solar project, in accordance with all applicable Federal, State, and local laws, rules, and regulations, and in furtherance of the goals set forth in the Clean Energy Act.