An Act To Encourage the Use of Renewable Energy
Maine Legislature, Session 126, LD 1146
Committee: Energy, Utilities and Technology
Sponsors: DORNEY, BOYLE, CHAPMAN, DEVIN, GATTINE, MAKER
Amends: 35-A MRSA §3209-A

Legislative Document 
No. 1146 
H.P. 811 
House of Representatives, March 21, 2013 
An Act To Encourage the Use of Renewable Energy 
Reference to the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology suggested and ordered 
printed. 
MILLICENT M. MacFARLAND 
Clerk 
Presented by Representative DORNEY of Norridgewock. 
Cosponsored by Senator BOYLE of Cumberland and 
Representatives: CHAPMAN of Brooksville, DEVIN of Newcastle, GATTINE of Westbrook, 
MAKER of Calais, McELWEE of Caribou. 
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows: 
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §3209-A, as enacted by PL 2011, c. 262, §1, is repealed and 
the following enacted in its place: 
§3209-A.  Net energy billing 
This section governs net energy billing. 
1.  Definitions.    As used in this section, unless the context otherwise indicates, the 
following terms have the following meanings. 
A.  "Credit" means the amount of kilowatt-hours generated by an eligible facility 
associated with a customer's account, as determined by rule by the commission, that 
is in excess of the amount of kilowatt-hours used by that customer within any given 
billing period. 
B.  "Eligible facility" means an electricity generating facility with a generating 
capacity of up to 2 megawatts that is eligible, as defined by commission by rule, to 
generate electricity to be used for net energy billing. 
C.  "Net energy" means the difference between the kilowatt-hours consumed by a 
customer and the kilowatt-hours generated by an eligible facility associated with a 
customer's account, as determined by rule by the commission. 
D.  "Net energy billing" means a billing and metering practice under which a 
customer is billed on the basis of net energy over the billing period taking into 
account accumulated credits from the previous billing period. 
2.  Net energy billing; no limit.  A customer need not own the relevant eligible 
facility or have legal rights to the energy generated by the eligible facility in order to elect 
net energy billing.  A customer may have any number of meters net metered against an 
eligible facility. 
3.  Credits.  A customer's accumulated unused credits do not expire.  A customer 
may sell accumulated unused credits the customer has earned to another customer of the 
same transmission and distribution utility if the customers are in the same service 
territory. 
4.  Rulemaking.  The commission shall adopt rules to implement this section.  Rules 
adopted under this subsection are routine technical rules as defined in Title 5, chapter 
375, subchapter 2-A. 
SUMMARY 
This bill adds specific requirements for the Public Utilities Commission regarding net 
energy billing.  The requirements specify that net energy billing credits do not expire, that 
the credits are transferable, that there is no ownership requirement to qualify for net 
energy billing, that there is no limit on the number of meters that may be net metered 
against an eligible facility and that eligible facilities may have a generating capacity of up 
to 2 megawatts.