Virginia Administrative Code › Title 20 - PUBLIC UTILITIES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS › Agency 5 - STATE CORPORATION COMMISSION › Chapter 315 - REGULATIONS GOVERNING NET ENERGY METERING › Section 20VAC5-315-50 - Metering, billing, payment and contract or tariff considerations

Current through Register Vol. 40, No. 24, July 15, 2024
Net metered energy shall be measured in accordance with
				  standard metering practices by metering equipment capable of measuring (but not
				  necessarily displaying) power flow in both directions. Each contract or tariff
				  governing the relationship between a customer, electric distribution company,
				  or energy service provider shall be identical, with respect to the rate
				  structure, all retail rate components, and monthly charges, to the contract or
				  tariff under which the same customer would be served if such customer were not
				  an agricultural net metering customer or a net metering customer with the
				  exceptions that a residential net metering customer or an agricultural net
				  metering customer in the service territory of a Phase II Utility whose
				  generating facility has a capacity that exceeds 15 kilowatts shall pay any
				  applicable tariffed monthly standby charges to the supplier, and that
				  time-of-use metering under an electricity supply service tariff having no
				  demand charges is not permitted. Said contract or tariff shall be applicable to
				  both the electric energy supplied to, and consumed from, the grid by that
				  customer. For customers of all other investor-owned utilities, on and after
				  July 1, 2020, standby charges are prohibited for any residential net metering
				  customer or agricultural net metering customer.
In instances where a customer's metering equipment is of a
				  type for which meter readings are made off site and where this equipment has,
				  or will be, installed for the convenience of the electric distribution company,
				  the electric distribution company shall provide the necessary additional
				  metering equipment to enable net metering service at no charge to the customer.
				  In instances where a customer has requested, and where the electric
				  distribution company would not have otherwise installed, metering equipment
				  that is intended to be read off site, the electric distribution company may
				  charge the customer its actual cost of installing any additional equipment
				  necessary to implement net metering service. A time-of-use customer shall bear
				  the incremental metering costs associated with net metering. Any incremental
				  metering costs associated with measuring the output of any generator for the
				  purposes of receiving renewable energy certificates shall be installed at the
				  customer's expense unless otherwise negotiated between the customer and the REC
				  purchaser. Agricultural net metering customers may be responsible for the cost
				  of additional metering equipment necessary to accomplish account
				  aggregation.
The customer shall receive no compensation for excess
				  generation unless the customer has entered into a power purchase agreement with
				  its supplier.
Upon the written request of the customer, the customer's
				  supplier shall enter into a power purchase agreement for the excess generation
				  for one or more net metering periods, as requested by the customer. The written
				  request of the customer shall be submitted prior to the beginning of the first
				  net metering period covered by the power purchase agreement. The power purchase
				  agreement shall be consistent with this chapter. If the customer's supplier is
				  an investor-owned electric distribution company, the supplier shall be
				  obligated by the power purchase agreement to purchase the excess generation for
				  the requested net metering periods at a price equal to the PJM Interconnection,
				  L.L.C. (PJM) zonal day-ahead annual, simple average LMP (locational marginal
				  price) for the PJM load zone in which the electric distribution company's
				  Virginia retail service territory resides (simple average of hourly LMPs, by
				  tiers, for time-of-use customers), as published by the PJM Market Monitoring
				  Unit, for the most recent calendar year ending on or before the end of each net
				  metering period, unless the electric distribution company and the customer
				  mutually agree to a higher price or unless, after notice and opportunity for
				  hearing, the commission establishes a different price or pricing methodology.
				  If the Virginia retail service territory of the investor-owned electric
				  distribution company does not reside within a PJM load zone, the power purchase
				  agreement shall obligate the electric distribution company to purchase excess
				  generation for the requested net metering periods at a price equal to the
				  systemwide PJM day-ahead annual, simple average LMP (simple average of hourly
				  LMPs, by tiers, for time-of-use customers), as published by the PJM Market
				  Monitoring Unit, for the most recent calendar year ending on or before the end
				  of each net metering period, unless the electric distribution company and the
				  customer mutually agree to a higher price or unless, after notice and
				  opportunity for hearing, the commission establishes a different price or
				  pricing methodology.
If the customer's supplier is a member-owned electric
				  cooperative, the supplier shall be obligated by the power purchase agreement to
				  purchase excess generation for the requested net metering periods at a price
				  equal to the simple average (by tiers for time-of-use customers) of the
				  electric cooperative's hourly avoidable cost of energy, including fuel, based
				  on the energy and energy-related charges of its primary wholesale power
				  supplier for the net metering period, unless the electric distribution company
				  and the customer mutually agree to a higher price or unless, after notice and
				  opportunity for hearing, the commission establishes a different price or
				  pricing methodology.
If the customer's supplier is a competitive service provider,
				  the supplier shall be obligated by the power purchase agreement to purchase the
				  excess generation for the requested net metering periods at a price equal to
				  the systemwide PJM day-ahead annual, simple average LMP (simple average of
				  hourly LMPs, by tiers, for time-of-use customers), as published by the PJM
				  Market Monitoring Unit, for the most recent calendar year ending on or before
				  the end of each net metering period, unless the supplier and the customer
				  mutually agree to a higher price or unless, after notice and opportunity for
				  hearing, the commission establishes a different price or pricing
				  methodology.
The customer's supplier shall make full payment annually to
				  the customer within 30 days following the latter of the end of the net metering
				  period or, if applicable, the date of the PJM Market Monitoring Unit's
				  publication of the previous calendar-year's applicable zonal or systemwide PJM
				  day-ahead annual, simple average LMP, or hourly LMP, as appropriate. The
				  supplier may offer the customer the choice of an account credit in lieu of a
				  direct payment. The option of a customer to request payment from its supplier
				  for excess generation and the price or pricing formula shall be clearly
				  delineated in the net metering tariff of the electric distribution company or
				  timely provided by the customer's competitive supplier, as applicable. A copy
				  of such tariff, or an Internet link to such tariff, at the option of the
				  customer, shall be provided to each prospective customer requesting
				  interconnection of a generating facility. A competitive service provider shall
				  provide in its contract with the customer the price or pricing formula for
				  excess generation.
For a nontime-of-use customer, in any billing period in which
				  there is a billing period credit, the customer shall be required to pay only
				  the nonusage sensitive charges, including any applicable standby charges, for
				  that billing period. For a time-of-use customer, in any billing period for
				  which there are billing period credits in all tiers, the customer shall be
				  required to pay only the demand charges, nonusage sensitive charges, and any
				  applicable standby charges for that billing period. Any billing period credits
				  shall be accumulated, carried forward, and applied at the first opportunity to
				  any billing periods having positive net consumptions (by tiers, in the case of
				  time-of-use customers). However, any accumulated billing period credits
				  remaining unused at the end of a net metering period shall be carried forward
				  into the next net metering period only to the extent that such accumulated
				  billing period credits carried forward do not exceed the customer's billed
				  consumption for the current net metering period, adjusted to exclude
				  accumulated billing period credits carried forward and applied from the
				  previous net metering period (recognizing tiers for time-of-use
				  customers).
A customer owns any renewable energy certificates (RECs)
				  associated with the total output of its generating facility. A supplier is only
				  obligated to purchase a customer's RECs if the customer has exercised its
				  one-time option at the time of signing a power purchase agreement with its
				  supplier to include a provision requiring the purchase by the supplier of all
				  generated RECs over the duration of the power purchase agreement.
Payment for all whole RECs purchased by the supplier during a
				  net metering period in accordance with the power purchase agreement shall be
				  made at the same time as the payment for any excess generation. The supplier
				  will post a credit to the customer's account, or the customer may elect a
				  direct payment. Any fractional REC remaining shall not receive immediate
				  payment but may be carried forward to subsequent net metering periods for the
				  duration of the power purchase agreement.
The rate of the payment by the supplier for a customer's RECs
				  shall be the daily unweighted average of the "CR" component of Virginia
				  Electric and Power Company's Virginia jurisdiction Rider G tariff in effect
				  over the period for which the rate of payment for the excess generation is
				  determined, unless the customer's supplier is not Virginia Electric and Power
				  Company, and that supplier has an applicable Virginia retail renewable energy
				  tariff containing a comparable REC commodity price component, in which case
				  that price component shall be the basis of the rate of payment. The commission
				  may, with notice and opportunity for hearing, set another rate of payment or
				  methodology for setting the rate of payment for RECs.
To the extent that RECs are not sold to the customer's
				  supplier, they may be sold to any willing buyer at any time at a mutually
				  agreeable price.
Statutory Authority: §§
											12.1-13
					 and
					 56-594
					 of the Code of Virginia.