Relative to the participation of customer generators in net energy metering.
SB 106 revises New Hampshire’s net energy metering laws for customer-generators, with a particular focus on larger projects. It updates the definition of “eligible customer-generator” and creates a new “industrial host” category for certain larger facilities serving groups of commercial, industrial, or institutional accounts within the same utility territory. The bill also requires electric distribution utilities to offer alternative net metering tariffs consistent with existing PUC Order No. 26,029 and preserves access to those tariffs for a defined period, generally up to 20 years from first compensation or through December 31, 2040, whichever is longer.
The bill adds a new consumption requirement for larger net-metered facilities: customer-generators over 1 megawatt and up to 5 megawatts, with an in-service date after January 1, 2026 and not acting as a group net metering host, must consume at least 33 percent of their generation annually. It exempts low- and moderate-income customers from that consumption requirement. The bill takes effect 60 days after passage.
SB 106 would amend RSA 362-A, the Limited Electrical Energy Producers Act, by changing eligibility rules for net metering, adding a new statutory definition for industrial hosts, and establishing a new consumption threshold for certain large customer-generators. It would also extend and preserve legacy tariff treatment for projects already receiving compensation under Order No. 26,029, while allowing a transition to any future tariff adopted by the Public Utilities Commission. The fiscal note indicates no direct revenue impact but anticipates potentially significant, indeterminable costs to utilities and ratepayers from billing-system changes, administrative tracking, and possible cross-territory data sharing.
The bill appears to be framed as a technical and policy adjustment to net metering rather than a broad overhaul, with sponsors seeking to clarify participation rules and preserve tariff certainty for existing projects. The fiscal note suggests the Department of Energy identified implementation concerns and potential cost increases, but the bill text itself reflects an effort to balance continued access to net metering with new limits on larger facilities. No committee transcript or recorded votes were provided, so overall sentiment can only be inferred from the bill structure and fiscal analysis.
The main points of contention are likely to be the new 33 percent self-consumption requirement for larger facilities, the creation of a separate industrial-host category, and the bill’s treatment of projects across utility franchise territories. The fiscal note highlights that removing the same-territory limitation could require utilities to coordinate billing systems and share data, creating potentially substantial costs that may be passed on to ratepayers. Another likely issue is whether the bill overrides or conflicts with existing Public Utilities Commission orders and whether the legacy tariff protections favor certain projects over others.