(A) No subsidies or incentives. The town does not offer any subsidies or incentive payments to support the capital costs related to the installation of solar generation facilities.
(B) Categories of customers; standard rates and charges.
(1) Categories of customers. Pursuant to § 50.45, the town recognizes three categories of customers: residential, general, and industrial. Solar generation customers will not be treated under a separate category, but rather, a solar generation customer will be treated as a residential, general, or industrial customer with a solar generation facility at a customer’s site who has entered an interconnection agreement with the town.
(2) Standard rates and charges apply. All rates and charges established by the Council pursuant to § 50.45 shall apply to solar generation customers; provided that different rates and charges may apply to industrial customers by agreement between the town and the industrial customer.
(3) Industrial customers. Industrial customers are not eligible for user credits based on solar-generated electricity; provided that industrial customers may negotiate user credits for metering based on a solar generation facility at the customer’s site as part of a rate agreement negotiated under § 50.45(B).
(C) Solar generation fee. The town, at its sole option, may establish a solar generation fee, which will be charged to solar generation customers with each month’s bill. The solar generation fee, if any, will apply in addition to any credit for net energy supplied to the town’s electrical distribution system that is applied to reduce the customer’s monthly bill. The Town Council may, from time to time, establish, set, change, and/or terminate the solar generation fee by resolution.
(D) Credit metering and customer billing.
(1) Credit metering. Each billing cycle, the energy supplied by the town to the solar generation customer (measured in kWh) will be compared with the energy transmitted by the customer’s solar generation facility to the town’s electrical distribution system (measured in kWh).
(a) If the energy supplied by the town exceeds the energy supplied by customer’s solar generation facility, the customer shall be billed for the net energy supplied by the town (as measured in kWh) based on the rate applicable to the customer in accordance with § 50.45 and all other standard rates and charges.
(b) If the energy transmitted by the customer’s solar generation facility exceeds the energy supplied by the town, the customer shall be credited for the net energy transmitted by the customer’s solar generation facility (as measured in kWh). The credit given to the customer as measured in kWh will be applied in accordance with § 50.72(D)(2)(a) to reduce the customer’s bill.
(2) (a) Customer billing. Based on any net energy supplied to the town from the customer’s solar generation facility (as measured in kWh), a credit will be calculated and applied to the solar generation customer’s bill during the next billing period. The amount of the credit will be calculated by multiplying the net energy supplied to the town by the rate per kWh established by the Council for such net energy supplied to the town. See § 50.72(D)(3). The resulting credit will be applied to reduce the solar generation customer’s bill during the next billing cycle.
(b) At the end of each calendar year (December 31), any remaining credit balance will be paid out to the customer, and the customer’s billing account will begin with a zero balance at the beginning of the next calendar year (January 1). No credit balances will be carried forward to the next calendar year.
(3) Solar generation credit rate. The Council shall, from time to time, by resolution, set the rate per kWh to be used when calculating the credit, or avoided cost of energy, given to solar generation customers for the net energy supplied to the town. The interconnection agreement and/or other town documents may, from time to time, use the phrase “avoided cost of energy” to refer to the resulting credit given to a solar generation customer.
(E) Customer tax liability. Any tax (or payment in lieu thereof) imposed on the town by any lawful authority for the production, transmission, sale, or purchase of energy (or a combination of capacity and energy) shall be the responsibility of the solar generation customer if the tax would not be imposed on energy supplied to a comparable non-solar generation customer.
(Ord. 2021-001, passed 8-24-2021)