(A) The city shall make available, upon request, interconnection of distributed generation to any customer taking service from the city and who meets the requirements set forth in this policy. For purposes of this policy, INTERCONNECTION OF DISTRIBUTED GENERATION means service to an electric customer under which electric energy generated by that electric customer from an eligible on-site generating facility owned by that customer and, under some circumstances, delivered to the local distribution facilities, may be used to offset electric energy provided by the electric utility to the electric customer as provided for in this policy. For multi-unit residential and commercial buildings, if all units are on the same account it qualifies as a single customer for purposes of this policy. If individual units are separately metered and individual tenants have individual accounts, then the term CUSTOMER only refers to the building owner and any usage by the owner. The city cannot be responsible to allocate renewable generation facilities to individual accounts in a multi-unit residential or commercial building. Before the project in-service date, customer must complete the Interconnection Application and receive approval from the utility. Please see the Exhibit A attached to Ordinance 23-1024-345, which is a form entitled “City of Fairfield Distributed Generation Interconnection Application Form” and which is incorporated herein by reference.
(B) For purposes of this policy an ELIGIBLE ON-SITE GENERATING FACILITY shall be defined as a renewable generating facility, such as a photovoltaic facility and small wind turbines, and may include technology to store renewable energy at the customer’s premises. Other forms of renewable generation shall be considered on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, facilities interconnected must be deemed by the city to be renewable to qualify for this policy.
(C) The electric generating facility must also abide by city’s interconnection policy currently in place at the time of installation to be an eligible on-site generating facility.
(D) The eligible on-site generating facility shall be located on the customer's premises and on the customer's side of the billing meter and be sized to primarily produce only enough electricity to offset the customer's own electrical requirements. Therefore, to be approved, a renewable generating facility must be properly sized so as not to exceed the customers expected annual usage based on the customer’s current energy needs. It is also important to the customer that the generating facilities are properly sized because the credits under this policy for excess energy delivered to the distribution system expire if not used within the time period established in this policy. As part of the interconnection application. customer's energy usage will be analyzed using 36-months of historical energy usage (if available) to calculate the customer’s expected annual usage.
(E) Customers that do not qualify for interconnection of distributed generation under this policy shall be permitted to interconnect and self-generate as required by and in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s rules under the PublicUtility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) on a case-by-case basis.
(F) Notwithstanding the provisions in division (D) above, the city reserves the authority to withhold, deny or delay approval of the interconnection of proposed on-site generating facilities if the operation of the facility would be unsafe or pose a risk of adverse impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof or to the property of other customers of the city. The city shall withhold approval for only so long as is reasonably necessary to remedy the risk of adverse impact. The city shall only deny approval if the adverse impact cannot reasonably be remedied or if the customer refuses to meet all applicable State and local safety and electrical code requirements or refuses to provide for payment of the costs of the improvements to the facility or the system that are required to accommodate the otherwise eligible on-site generating facility. The city shall not be required to make unscheduled improvements to its distribution system or portions thereof to remedy the situation causing the delayed or withheld approval unless the customer agrees to pay for the reasonable costs thereof. Likewise, the city may require a customer with an approved on-site generating facility that has been installed and begun to operate to suspend operations of the facility if it becomes unsafe or causes adverse impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof or to the property of other customers of the city, and such suspension shall be in place only so long as is reasonably necessary to remedy the adverse impact. The city may require the customer to disconnect the on-site generating facility from the distribution system in serious situations.
(G) (1) Energy generated by the customer-owned generator during the billing period may supply all or a portion of the energy required by the customer’s load. The customer shall be credited for excess energy delivered by the customer to the city at the meter from the approved on-site generating facility.
(2) For eligible on-site generating facilities that were approved prior to the effective date of this policy, the following credit method shall be used to determine excess energy credit until April 30. 2033. For any energy generated by the customer in excess of the energy required by the customer’s loads for a given billing period a credit of 1:1 kWh shall be carried forward to the customer’s next billing period.
(3) For all other eligible on-site generating facilities, and after April 30, 2033, for the above- referenced customers in division (G)(2) above, the following credit method shall be used to determine excess energy credit: Energy delivered by the utility to the customer at the meter, as reflected in the meter reading, shall be billed at the appropriate utility full retail energy rate. Any excess energy generated by the customer from an approved on-site generating facility and delivered by the customer to the utility at the meter, as reflected in the meter reading, a credit shall be created and applied to the customer's bill. This credit shall be equal to the average net cost of power per kWh as billed monthly by the power supplier. The city shall install an appropriate meter to measure both the energy delivered by the utility to the customer at the meter and the energy delivered by the customer to the utility at the meter from the approved on-site generating facility.
(4) Credits from electric energy delivered to the municipal distribution system by the customer shall be used to offset usage based electric energy (kWh) charges only. No such credits shall be applied to, and the customer shall remain responsible for, (i) taxes, fees, and other charges that would otherwise be applicable to the net amount of electric energy (kWh) purchased by the customer from the city or consumed by the customer, and (ii) other charges to the customer under any other rules, regulations or
rates that are not based on per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charges, including but not limited to, basic service charges, customer service charges, facilities charges, demand charges, kVAR charges, transformation charges, taxes and assessments billed on other than kWh basis, rental fees, and late fees.
(5) The city shall carry over any unused credits earned and apply those credits to subsequent billing periods to offset usage based electric energy (kWh) charges only for electric energy supplied to the customer by the city until all credits are used or until the end of the annual period on April 30. At the end of the annual period, or in the event that the customer terminates service at the service location with the city prior to the end of annual period, any remaining credits in the customer's account shall expire and no credit or payment shall be due to the customer for such expired credits. In the event of termination of an account qualifying for interconnection of distributed generation under this policy, any outstanding credits are surrendered. No credit or payment shall be due to the customer for such surrendered credits. Under no circumstance will credits for excess energy transfer to a new customer at the service location after the customer’s service with the the city terminates.
(H) Any costs the city incurs associated with the interconnection of generating facilities by a customer, including but not limited to changes in metering (to include installation of a bi-directional meter), or other physical facilities, whether on the customer’s premises or a reasonably necessary upgrade to the municipal distribution system or a portion thereof that is not on the customer’s premises, shall be borne by the customer seeking to install or for whom the generating facility was installed. Costs assessed under this section shall be demonstrable and cost-based. Such costs shall not include or be based on reduced sales by or lost revenues to the city associated with interconnection of distributed generation.
(I) The city shall develop such documents as needed to implement this policy and any customer applying for or taking service hereunder shall execute all appropriate documents.
(J) Any customer with an approved on-site generating facility that was approved and in service on or prior to the effective date of this policy may elect to be treated as if it were placed in service after the effective date of this policy for purposes of the legacy netting and crediting provisions in division (G) above. There is a limited one-time option to make such election. The customer shall make any such election within 60 days of the effective date this policy.
(K) The city reserves the right to interpret, amend or rescind this policy. Nothing herein is intended to, nor shall it create a right for a customer to rely on any particular netting or crediting methodology contained in the policy from time to time, and all rates for excess credits are subject to change in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois governing municipalities.
(L) Citizen and customer concerns generally with this distributed generation policy may be raised in the public comment portion of any open meeting of the governing body of the city at any time and will be considered by the governing body in accordance with its normal processes. Individual customer complaints, disputes or concerns shall be raised in the first instance with the service provider. If the matter cannot be resolved at the service provider level, this issue shall be reduced to writing and forwarded to the Mayor who shall schedule a meeting in person or by telephone or other communications media (i.e., Zoom call) with the customer. The customer may invite its contractor or other consultant to participate in the meeting. If this process fails to resolve the matter, the customer may appeal it to the circuit court and exercise whatever rights and remedies the customer may have in law or equity. This policy shall be posted on the the city website along with appropriate contact information.
(Ord. 23-1024-345, passed 10-24-2023)