Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 18, September 24, 2024
A. The commission will engage a third-party
administrator to manage an unbiased and nondiscriminatory process for selection
of proposed projects for building and operating community solar facilities. The
commission will have no involvement in the process except to the extent that
the administrator or any participant in the process may raise before the
commission an issue that is not fully addressed in this rule and that the
commission finds, in its discretion, that it should address.
B. Community solar facility projects shall be
selected through a competitive solicitation process, with each bid meeting the
following minimum requirements for eligibility:
(1) the bidder's legally binding site
control;
(2) the bidder's
commitment to meeting statutory subscriber minimums and not exceeding statutory
maximums;
(3) the bidder's
completion of a utility pre-application report or an equivalent report by the
utility;
(4) the bidder's proof of
access to collateral for the applicable project deposit; and
(5) the bidder's payment of a $1000
non-refundable bid application fee to the commission.
C. The program administrator shall limit
consideration of bids by any one bidder to a maximum total for such bids of
twenty percent of the statewide capacity cap allocated to the applicable
utility.
D. No utility shall use
any information provided in the interconnection application process or any
information to which the utility has superior access to gain an unfair
advantage for itself or any utility-affiliated bidder in the project selection
process.
E. Eligible bids shall be
scored using a set of non-price factors, with each factor weighted by the
number of points awarded to the factor, as follows:
(1) each bid shall be awarded to one of the
following categories pertaining to permitting status, each with its own point
weighting:
(a) a bid for which all necessary
non-ministerial permits and approvals have been secured, based upon a
permitting plan signed by a licensed engineering firm, shall be categorized as
fully permitted and shall be awarded 15 points:
(b) a bid for which applications are pending
for all necessary non-ministerial permits, or for which one or more permits
have been granted and applications are pending for the remainder, based upon
permitting plan signed by a licensed engineering firm, shall be categorized as
permits known and pending and shall be awarded 10 points;
(c) a bid for which the necessary
non-ministerial permits have been identified based upon a permitting plan
signed by a licensed engineering firm, but not all such permits have been
applied for, shall be categorized as permits known and shall be awarded five
points; or
(d) a bid for which the
necessary non-ministerial permits have not been identified, based upon a
permitting plan signed by a licensed engineering firm, shall be categorized as
no permitting activity and shall be awarded no points.
(2) each bid shall be awarded points for
having any, some, or all of the following attributes concerning the bidder's
experience in developing and managing community solar projects, with the
attributes being additive, not exclusive, for a range of zero to 10 potential
points per bid:
(a) a bid made by a bidder
composed of partners or principals having experience with subscriber recruiting
and subscription management shall be awarded three points;
(b) a bid made by a bidder composed of
partners or principals having experience building and operating facilities
shall be awarded three points; and
(c) a bid made by a bidder composed of
partners or principals having experience working directly with low-income
communities shall be awarded four points.
(3) each bid shall be assigned to one of the
following categories pertaining to financing status, each with its own point
weighting:
(a) a bid for which financing has
been secured, whether in the form of an executed commitment letter from the
project financier(s) or in the form of written confirmation of executive-level
approval for internal financing, shall be categorized as financing secured and
shall be awarded 10 points;
(b) a
bid for which financing has not been secured but for which a detailed and
feasible financing plan has been prepared shall be categorized as financing
planned and shall be awarded four points; or
(c) a bid for which financing has not been
secured and for which no detailed and feasible financing plan has been prepared
shall be categorized as financing unplanned and shall be awarded no
points.
(4) each bid
shall be awarded points for having one or both of the following attributes
concerning the proposed project site's viability for interconnection, with the
attributes being additive, not exclusive, for a range of zero to five potential
points per bid:
(a) a bid for which the
proposed project site's distance to the utility's nearest three-phase line is
less than one mile, as demonstrated by the utility's pre-application report or
convincing alternative evidence presented by the bidder, shall be awarded two
points; and
(b) a bid for which the
proposed project would interconnect to a line of voltage 12 kV or higher, as
demonstrated by the utility's pre-application report, shall be awarded three
points.
(5) each bid
shall be awarded points for including any, some, or all the following
commitments beyond what is required by the statute, with the commitments being
additive, not exclusive, for a range of zero to 25 potential points per bid:
(a) a bid including a commitment to exceed
the statutory thirty-percent minimum level of subscription of low-income
subscribers shall be awarded two points for each additional five-percent
commitment above the thirty-percent minimum, up to a maximum of eight points
for a commitment to a fifty-percent low-income subscription level for the
proposed project;
(b) a bid
including a commitment to serve a specific percentage of direct-billed
low-income customers shall be awarded two points for a ten-percent commitment
and two additional points for each additional ten-percent commitment, up to a
maximum of eight points for a commitment to a forty-percent subscription level
of direct-billed, low-income subscribers for the proposed project;
(c) a bid including a commitment to refrain
from imposing upon any potential low-income subscriber any up-front costs of
subscribing, a commitment to refrain from imposing upon any potential
low-income subscriber any early termination fee, and a commitment to refrain
from requiring or ordering any credit check or credit report for any low-income
subscriber, shall be awarded two points; and
(d) a bid including a commitment to
supplement the community solar bill credit for any low-income subscriber, for a
minimum period of five years, by including, in addition to the credit as
calculated and provided by the utility, a credit from the subscriber
organization to the subscriber in the amount of an additional twenty to thirty
percent of the utility solar bill credit, shall be awarded four points for a
commitment of twenty percent up to and including twenty-two percent, five
points for a commitment above twenty-two percent up to and including
twenty-five percent, six points for a commitment above twenty-five percent up
to and including twenty-seven percent, or seven points for a commitment above
twenty-seven percent up to and including thirty percent.
(6) each bid shall be awarded points for
having any, some, or all of the following attributes concerning benefits to
local communities, to disproportionately impacted communities, or to
disadvantaged groups, with the attributes being additive, not exclusive, for a
range of zero to 20 potential points per bid:
(a) a bid including a commitment to offer
workforce training or educational opportunities to disproportionately impacted
communities shall be awarded six points;
(b) a bid including a commitment to contract
for materials, supplies, or services only with businesses owned or operated
locally or owned or operated by members of racial minorities, women, veterans,
or Native Americans, shall be awarded six points;
(c) a bid including a commitment to ownership
of the proposed facility by members of the local community shall be awarded two
points; and
(d) a bid including
evidence of and a description of an existing and continuing partnership with a
tribe, pueblo, local community, or non-profit community organization shall be
awarded six points.
(7)
each bid shall be awarded points for having any, some, or all of the following
attributes concerning the proposed project site, with the attributes being
additive, not exclusive, for a range of zero to five potential points per bid:
(a) a bid for a project to be sited on a
brownfield, built environment, or rooftop shall be awarded two
points;
(b) a bid for a project to
be sited on municipal, county, or state land shall be awarded one point;
and
(c) a bid for a project that
has received a favorable analysis from the department of cultural affairs or a
qualified independent expert shall be awarded two points.
(8) each bid shall be categorized according
to the provisions of Section
13-1-21
NMSA 1978, and shall be awarded points accordingly.
(9) The program administrator may award an
additional five points to any bid that, as determined by the administrator in
its discretion, includes an innovative commitment or provision beneficial to
the local community, to potential subscribers, or to the program
overall.
F. The program
administrator shall select projects based upon these qualifications and
selection criteria within each qualifying utility's territory until the
allocated capacity cap for each utility has been reached.
G. For each bid selected to proceed further
by the program administrator, the bidder shall pay to the commission an
application fee in the amount of $2500 for each megawatt of nameplate capacity
the proposed facility is expected to have.
H. The program administrator shall identify
sets of proposed projects to comprise utility-specific wait lists of proposed
projects that would be eligible and able to participate in the program should a
project or multiple projects be withdrawn after being selected to go forward.
The wait lists shall be comprised of projects that received total scores
immediately below the scores of the projects that were selected. The program
administrator shall maintain a wait list for each qualifying utility, including
projects with combined capacities for each utility equal to the utility's
allocated capacity cap. Each bidder proposing a wait-listed project shall pay
the $2500/MW application fee within 30 days of moving from the wait list into
the queue of selected projects.
I.
A utility must consider interconnection applications for community solar
projects that have been selected by the administrator and any projects from the
wait list that replace any selected projects and need not consider
interconnection applications for community solar projects that have not been
selected or have not replaced selected projects. Among the group of
interconnection applications for community solar projects that have been
selected by the administrator or have replaced selected projects, a utility
must prioritize consideration of applications in the order of ranking by points
awarded to each project in the selection process. A utility shall not apply any
preference for interconnection applications for community solar projects as
opposed to other types of interconnection applications, and vice-versa,
regarding prioritization in the interconnection queue.
