(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 electric utility to the electric customer as provided for in this policy. The term NET METERING is not used as a limiting term, but rather is used in its general sense to include the full range of methods for valuing customer self-generation and implementing fair credits for excess energy delivered to the municipal distribution system by the customer. 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, customer must complete the application form attached to Ordinance No. 2023-03 and receive approval from the Director of Public Works. Before the project in service date, the contractor must complete and deliver the Certification of Completion attached to Ordinance No. 2023-03 to the Director of Public Works for approval.
(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 the city’s interconnection standards currently in place at the time of installation to be an eligible on-site generating facility.
(D) Subject to the limitations set forth herein, the city shall make net metering service available upon request to any city residential or small commercial electric customer with an eligible on-site generating facility owned by the customer. The determination whether a customer is a residential or small commercial customer is based on the rate classification under which the customer takes electric service. The eligible onsite 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. Proper sizing of eligible on-site generating facilities shall be determined as set forth in division (K) below.
(E) Any request for net metering service by a customer that is not a residential or small commercial customer shall be considered on a case by case basis. The decision with respect to such facilities shall be made by the city’s Director of Public Works based on potential impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof and to the property of other customers of the city. Customers that do not qualify for net metering service 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 Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) on a case by case basis.
(F) Notwithstanding the provisions in division (D), the city reserves the authority to withhold, deny or delay approval of the interconnection of proposed on-site generating facilities and of net metering service hereunder 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 any energy generated by the customer in excess of the energy required by the customer’s loads for a given billing period, a credit shall be carried forward to the customer’s next billing period. For all eligible on-site generating facilities, the following credit method shall be used to determine excess energy credit. For 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. For 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 based upon the lesser of the full retail energy rate for the customer class and the avoided cost of energy. Avoided cost shall be determined as set forth in division (J) below. 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.
(3) 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:
(a) 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
(b) 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.
(4) 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. The annual period shall end each year on December 31. 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 net metering 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 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; provided however that such costs shall be capped at $1,500 to each qualifying customer interconnecting facilities of ten kW or less. For those facilities greater than ten kW that are deemed to qualify under this policy, all costs associated with the interconnection of the generating facility 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-net metering service.
(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) From and after the adoption of this policy, for all approved onsite generating facilities, including currently existing facilities, “avoided cost” shall be determined based on the sum of divisions (J)(1) and (2) below.
(1) The rate in cents per kWh as published and approved annually by the governing body of the city based on the calculations and recommendation from the city’s electric wholesale supplier. Such rate shall be approved annually in a public meeting. The rate shall take into consideration the following:
(a) Historic real time pricing of prior calendar year of energy in the wholesale market as valued at the locational marginal pricing (LMP) for that location as defined by the appropriately located Regional Transmission Organization (RTO).
(b) Solar-weighted LMP. The simple average of the LMP weighted using solar weighting. SOLAR WEIGHTING is the expected production of each hour of a typical solar installation as determined using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) System Advisory Model (SAM) as may be amended from time to time.
(c) Capacity value. Appropriate RTO capacity price with solar factors applied for average system peak times.
(d) Transmission value. Appropriate RTO transmission cost recovery with solar factor applied for average peak times.
(2) The rate in cents per kWh as calculated by the city for the avoidance of distribution system losses.
(K) The maximum size in kilowattsAC of the eligible on-site generating facility for an individual customer service location in the rate categories identified in division (D) shall be determined as follows:
(1) The installation of a renewable generating facility under this policy is intended to supply all or a portion of the customer’s own usage of electricity. Therefore, in order to be approved, a renewable generating facility must be properly sized so as not to exceed the customer’s 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) in order to calculate the customer’s expected annual usage. If a customer provides documentation specifying why the usage has increased over that time, such as home renovation/addition or installation of electric heating or an electric vehicle charging station on the premises, then the previous 12-month period shall be used to determine the average for the expected annual usage. If the applicable months of data are not available for an individual customer, the average usage amounts by other similar customers of the city, as determined by the city, shall be used to set the expected annual usage. If facilities are allowed for customers in other rate classes, the right-sizing shall be determined on a case by case basis.
(2) In addition to the foregoing historic usage, the city shall consider potential adverse impacts to the distribution system and to other customers of the city that will be caused by or expected to be caused by the installation of the new renewable generating facility at the particular customer service location as part of the interconnection application review. The maximum size of the eligible on-site generating facility for an individual customer service location shall be reduced below the expected annual usage of the customer to mitigate the potential adverse impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof and to the other customers of the city unless the customer pays for any necessary upgrade to the system or portion thereof to avoid the potential adverse impact.
(L) 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.
(M) Citizen and customer concerns generally with this net metering 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 Director of Public Works. If the matter cannot be resolved at the utility staff 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 the matter cannot be resolved at this stage, the process will escalate to the City Council. 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 city website along with appropriate contact information.
(Ord. 2022-03, passed 3-14-2022; Am. Ord. 2023-03, passed 3-27-2023)