The customer must make an application to Santa Clara City and receive approval from the city before installing an interconnected renewable resource on their property. Santa Clara City may withhold approval if for any reason the requested interconnection would result in a negative monetary or physical impact on the city's electrical system. The city may approve the agreement if there is no physical negative impact, but may terminate this agreement at any time if it is determined to have an adverse monetary impact.
A. By accepting this net metering policy, the customer hereby agrees to the following provisions:
1. The monthly electrical output of the renewable resource shall not be greater than one hundred twenty percent (120%) of the historical maximum monthly energy consumption at a single point of delivery of the customer.
2. A renewable resource installed by the customer shall include, at the customer's expense, all equipment necessary to meet applicable safety, power quality and interconnection requirements established by the national electric code ("NEC"), national electric safety code ("NESC") and shall be manufactured and installed to interconnection standards that meet or exceed the Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers, Inc. ("IEEE") standard 1547 for interconnecting distributed resources with electric power systems and Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. ("UL") standard 1741, inverters, converters and controllers for use in independent power systems.
3. The customer shall be required to install a manual disconnect that is within five feet (5') of the meter location, readily accessible by city personnel and outside of any fenced in area. The disconnect switch shall be lockable and shall be labeled as "generation disconnect".
4. The city shall install and maintain a new revenue meter for the customer, at the customer's expense. In addition, any subsequent revenue meter change necessitated by the customer, whether because of a decision to stop net metering or for any other reason, shall be an expense billed to the customer at the applicable service rates.
5. By accepting this agreement the customer releases to the city all renewable energy credits ("RECs"), solar renewable energy credits ("SRECs") or other renewable attributes as appropriate based on actual on site electric generation from the renewable resource.
6. The customer will comply with all city service and utility billing requirements, including payments for applicable monthly electrical base rates and other utility billings, fees and taxes.
7. The customer will comply with all installation requirements, applicable inspection fees, building and electric codes of the city.
8. The customer's facility used for net metering shall be equipped with metering equipment, which can measure the flow of electricity in both directions at the same rate. For customer facilities less than ten (10) kilowatts ("kW") in rated capacity, this shall be accomplished through the use of a single, bidirectional electric revenue meter which has only a single register for billing purposes.
9. The city shall make net metering available to eligible customers on a first come, first served basis. Single or multiple net metering connections to a city owned transformer, which create an imbalance that exceeds twenty percent (20%) of the nameplate, rating may be denied at the city's discretion or, if approved may require system upgrades including additional transformers or other system upgrades at the customer's expense.
10. Net metering connections to city facilities above or greater than industry standard, secondary voltages shall not be allowed under this policy and shall be reviewed by the city under a separate review and approval process, which may include a system impact study. Renewable resource connections to transmission lines within the city are prohibited.
11. If the net metering project requires special engineering studies as determined by the city, the customer shall be responsible for all costs. An estimate of costs shall be provided by a licensed engineering firm as determined by the city and payment will be made by the customer, to the city, before the engineering study is approved. Final billing for the study will be trued up upon completion and the customer shall be billed for any amount above, or their electric account credited, for any amount below the initial estimate.
12. The customer shall be solely responsible for all work, and costs incurred, for installation and maintenance of the renewable resource. All modifications or improvements required to the city's electric system due to the customer's installation of facilities shall be paid for by the customer. (Ord. 2013-08)