(A) The city shall make available, upon request, net metering service to any customer taking service from the city and who meets the requirements set forth in this policy. For purposes of this policy, NET METERING 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 city 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 starts construction, the customer must complete the attached application form and receive approval from the City Manager. Before the project in service date, the contractor must complete and deliver the attached Certification of Completion to the City Manager.
(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. 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 the city's interconnection standards currently in place.
(D) Subject to the limitations set forth herein, the city shall make net metering service available upon request to any city residential electric customer with a qualifying generating facility of 10 kW capacity or less. For commercial and industrial accounts, the limit will be 20 kW.
(E) Any generating facility greater than the limits in division (D), but less than 1 MW shall be considered on a case by case basis. The decision with respect to such facilities shall be made by the City Manager.
(F) Notwithstanding the provisions in division (E), the city reserves the authority to limit the size of a customer net metered installation to a size such that the electrical output will not, as a matter of routine operation, exceed the electric load of the structure on which it is installed.
(G) Total net metered capacity interconnected under this policy for the city's system shall not exceed 2% of the system's peak as it existed in the prior calendar year. In the event that the system peak is reduced such that the existing net capacity exceeds the 2% level, those existing net metered customers shall be allowed to continue under this policy. However, no new interconnections will be allowed until such time as the system peak grows such that net metered capacity is again no greater than 2% of the system's peak.
(H) The city shall install a bi-directional meter to measure both the energy used by the customer from the city and the energy provided by the customer to the city. Energy used by the customer from the city, as reflected in the meter reading, shall be billed at the appropriate utility full retail rate. For any energy generated by the customer and provided to the city for a given billing period, as reflected in the meter reading, a credit shall be applied to the customer's bill based upon the city's avoided cost. Avoided cost shall be defined as the average cost in cents/KWh billed to the city by its power supplier for the previous month. In the event of termination of an account qualifying for net metering under this policy, any outstanding credits are surrendered. Under no circumstances shall there be payments or credit transfers for excess energy generated by the customer. Each customer's account shall be trued up monthly and adjustments, either credit or debit, will be made to the customer's account interest free.
(I) Any costs the city incurs associated with the net metering program, including but not limited to changes in metering (to include installation of a bi-directional meter), other physical facilities or billing-related costs, shall be born by the participants in the net metering program provided however that such costs shall be capped at $1,000 to each qualifying customer interconnecting facilities of 10 kW or less. For those facilities greater than 10 kW that are deemed to qualify under this policy, all costs associated with the program shall be born by the participant.
(J) In addition to the cost referenced in division (I), the city shall charge a distribution system utilization fee of ($ e ) to ensure all customers pay a share of the costs of maintenance and improvements to the distribution system. This fee is exclusive to customers who receive net metering services under this policy and represents the non-bypassable costs associated with maintaining the distribution system that backs up net metered generation.
(K) The city shall develop such rules, regulations and documents as needed to implement this policy. The city reserves the right to interpret, amend or rescind this policy. Any modification of the policy shall become effective the date of its issuance unless otherwise noted. Nothing herein is intended to or should be construed as a contractual offer or creating any contractual obligation on the part of the city.
(Ord. 1008, passed 6-4-18; Am. Ord. 1059, passed 2-2-21)