Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 9, September 1, 2024
(1) Solar
qualifying facilities with a Nameplate Capacity Rating of 3 MW and less, and
all other qualifying facilities with a Nameplate Capacity Rating of 10 MW and
less, are eligible for standard avoided cost prices.
(2) All qualifying facilities with a
Nameplate Capacity Rating of 10 MW and less are eligible to enter into a
standard power purchase agreement.
(3) Renewable qualifying facilities that
satisfy the criteria of section (1) are eligible to select the purchasing
public utility's standard renewable avoided cost prices. A renewable qualifying
facility choosing the standard renewable avoided cost prices must cede all
renewable energy certificates generated by the Facility to the purchasing
public utility while the qualifying facility is receiving deficiency-period
pricing from the purchasing public utility and during any other period of the
power purchase agreement ordered by the Commission.
(4) The determination of Nameplate Capacity
Rating for purposes of determining whether a qualifying facility meets the size
criteria in sections (1) and (2) is based on the cumulative Nameplate Capacity
Rating of the qualifying facility seeking the standard avoided cost prices or
power purchase agreement and that of any other Facilities owned by the same
person(s) or affiliate(s) located on the same site.
(a) Two qualifying facilities are located on
the same site if the generating facilities or equipment providing fuel or
motive force associated with the qualifying facilities are located within a
five-mile radius and the qualifying facilities use the same source of energy or
motive force to generate electricity;
(b) For purposes of this section:
(A) Person(s) are natural persons or any
legal entities.
(B) Affiliate(s)
are persons sharing common ownership or management, persons acting jointly or
in concert with, or exercising influence over, the policies of another person
or persons, or wholly owned subsidiaries.
(C) To the extent a person or affiliate is a
closely held entity, a "look through" rule applies so that project equity held
by limited liability companies, trusts, estates, corporations, partnerships,
and other similar entities is considered to be held by the owners of the look
through entity.
(c)
Notwithstanding subsections (4)(a) and (b), the qualifying facility seeking
standard prices or a standard power purchase agreement, and other Facilities
within the same five-mile radius, will not be considered owned or controlled by
the same person(s) or affiliate(s) if the person(s) or affiliate(s) in common
are passive investors whose ownership interest is primarily for obtaining value
related to production tax credits, green tag values, or modified accelerated
cost recovery system (MACRS) depreciation, and the qualifying facility and
other Facilities at issue are "family-owned" or "community-based" project(s):
(A) Family-owned. A project will be
considered "family owned" if, after excluding the ownership interest of those
who qualify as passive investor(s) under (4)(c), five or fewer individuals hold
at least 50 percent of the project entity, or 15 or fewer individual entities
hold at least 90 percent of the project entity. For purposes of counting the
number of individuals holding the remaining share (i.e., determining whether
there are 5 or fewer individuals or 15 or fewer individuals), an individual is
a natural person. Notwithstanding the foregoing, an individual, his or her
spouse, and his or her dependent children, will be aggregated and counted as a
single individual even if the spouse and/or dependent children also hold equity
in the project;
(B) Community
Based. A community-based (or community-sponsored) project must include
participation by an established organization that is located either in the
county in which the qualifying facility is located or within 50 miles of the
qualifying facility and that either:
(i) Has a
genuine role in developing, or helping to develop, the qualifying facility and
intends to have a significant continuing role with, or interest in, the
qualifying facility after it is completed and placed in service; or
(ii) Is a unit of local government that will
not have an equity ownership interest in or exercise any control over the
management of the qualifying facility and whose only interest is a share of the
cash flow from the qualifying facility, that may not exceed 20 percent without
prior approval of the Commission for good cause.
(d) Notwithstanding subsections
(4)(a) and (b), two or more qualifying facilities that otherwise are not owned
or operated by the same person(s) or affiliate(s) will not be determined to be
a single qualifying facility based on the fact that they have in place a shared
interest or agreement regarding interconnection facilities,
interconnection-related system upgrades, or any other infrastructure not
providing motive force or fuel. Two or more qualifying facilities will not be
held to be owned or controlled by the same person(s) or affiliate(s) solely
because they are developed by a single entity so long as they are not owned or
operated by the same person(s) or affiliate(s) of the same person(s) at the
time each qualifying facility seeks to enter into a power purchase agreement or
at any time thereafter.
