An Act To Eliminate Gross Metering
Maine Legislature, Session 129, LD 0091
Committee: Energy, Utilities and Technology
Sponsors: BERRY, WOODSOME, BICKFORD, CAIAZZO, DOUDERA, EVANGELOS, KESSLER, KINNEY, ROBERTS-LOVELL, BLACK
Amends: 35-A MRSA §3209-A

Legislative Document
No. 91
H.P. 77
House of Representatives, January 15, 2019
An Act To Eliminate Gross Metering
(EMERGENCY)
Reference to the Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology suggested and ordered 
printed.
ROBERT B. HUNT
Clerk
Presented by Representative BERRY of Bowdoinham.
Cosponsored by Senator WOODSOME of York and
Representatives: BICKFORD of Auburn, CAIAZZO of Scarborough, DOUDERA of Camden, 
EVANGELOS of Friendship, KESSLER of South Portland, KINNEY of Knox, ROBERTS-
LOVELL of South Berwick, Senator: BLACK of Franklin.
Emergency preamble. Whereas, acts and resolves of the Legislature do not 
become effective until 90 days after adjournment unless enacted as emergencies; and
Whereas, the Public Utilities Commission has changed the rules governing net 
energy billing in a way that penalizes self-generation; and
Whereas, the costs and complexities of implementing these rule changes are 
disruptive to customers; and
Whereas, passage of this Act as emergency legislation will minimize the negative 
effects this rule change has had on customers; and
Whereas, recent outages of electric power have demonstrated the need for 
predictable and fair distributed energy generation policy; and
Whereas, in the judgment of the Legislature, these facts create an emergency within 
the meaning of the Constitution of Maine and require the following legislation as 
immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety; now, 
therefore,
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Maine as follows:
Sec. 1.  35-A MRSA §3209-A, as corrected by RR 2017, c. 1, §32, is amended to 
read:
§3209-A.  Net energy billing
The commission may adopt or amend rules governing net energy billing. Rules 
adopted or amended under this section are routine technical major substantive rules as 
defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.  "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 unused kilowatt-hour credits from the 
previous the difference between the kilowatt-hours delivered by a transmission and 
distribution utility to the customer over a billing period and the kilowatt-hours delivered 
by the customer to the transmission and distribution utility over the billing period, taking 
into account accumulated unused kilowatt-hour credits from the previous billing period.
Sec. 2.  Rules. Within 60 days of the effective date of this Act, the Public Utilities 
Commission shall amend its net energy billing rules adopted pursuant to the Maine 
Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 3209-A to be substantively equivalent to the rules in 
effect on January 1, 2017.  Notwithstanding Title 35-A, section 3209-A, rules adopted for 
this purpose are routine technical rules, as defined in Title 5, chapter 375, subchapter 2-A.  
The commission may not make any other changes to rules adopted pursuant to Title 
35-A, section 3209-A until July 1, 2020.  The net energy billing rules adopted pursuant to 
this section must apply retroactively to all net energy billing customers that entered into a 
net energy billing arrangement between March 29, 2017 and the effective date of the 
rules adopted pursuant to this section.
Emergency clause.  In view of the emergency cited in the preamble, this 
legislation takes effect when approved.
SUMMARY
This bill clarifies the definition of "net energy billing." It requires the Public Utilities 
Commission, within 60 days of this legislation becoming effective, to amend its net 
energy billing rules adopted pursuant to the Maine Revised Statutes, Title 35-A, section 
3209-A to be substantively equivalent to the rules in effect on January 1, 2017.  It 
provides that all customers that entered into a net energy billing arrangement on or after 
March 29, 2017 are governed by the rules that are to be adopted pursuant to this 
legislation.