Maine considers community solar rules

As Maine utility regulators consider changes to the state’s net metering rule for solar panels and other customer-owned generation, revisions proposed by the Public Utilities Commission could change how consumers can participate in community and shared ownership solar projects.

For years, the Maine Public Utilities Commission’s rules have allowed “net energy billing,” a metering and billing mechanism that promotes the development and operation of smaller renewable generation facilities. Net metering is responsible for nearly all customer-owned solar power projects developed in Maine to date, including a handful of shared ownership or community solar farms. But as utility Central Maine Power Company reported that its customers' net metering reached 1% of peak load last year, the Commission launched a process to consider revisions to its net energy billing rules.

On September 14, 2016, the Commission released a Notice of Rulemaking along with proposed amendments to its rule. As proposed by the Commission, the amended rule would expand net energy billing in Maine in several ways. It would increases the size cap for an eligible facility by 50%, from 660 kilowatts to one megawatt. It would also recognize four different types of net energy billing arrangements that would be allowed: individual customer; customer leases; shared ownership; and community NEB.

Under the shared ownership model, each participating customer must have a shared ownership interest in the eligible facility under which the customers have joint responsibility for the costs of the shared ownership facility and have rights to the output of the shared ownership facility in proportion to their cost responsibilities. Under shared ownership net energy billing, the transmission and distribution utility would allocate the nettable energy of the shared ownership facility to customers in proportion to each customer’s ownership interest in the eligible facility.

The proposed rule would also explicitly allow for “community” net energy billing, a model that the Commission recognized as “increasing as a means to promote smaller solar installations.” The proposal suggests that community projects would have similarities to shared ownership projects, with additional registration and consumer protection provisions, but potentially with different ownership requirements.

The case over the rule change’s adoption remains pending for now. While some elements of the proposal would expand net metering opportunities, the proposal would also ratchet down the amount of energy that new projects could net against their T&D bill, from 100% in 2016 to 0% for new NEB customers after 2025. Elements of the Commission’s proposal remain controversial. Nevertheless the Commission’s proposal suggests a potential direction for future community solar projects in Maine.

Inflatable flashboards meet historic dam

A hydropower project in Lowell, Massachusetts won the right to replace wooden flashboards with an inflatable pneumatic crest gate system -- and now seeks to modify provisions requiring specific actions to mitigate impacts on historic properties.

The Lowell Hydroelectric Project is located on the Merrimack River.  While the project does not occupy any federal land, it is located within the administrative boundary of the Lowell National Historical Park.

On July 6, 2010, project licensees Boott Hydropower, Inc., and Eldred L. Field Hydroelectric Facility Trust filed an application to amend the license for the Lowell Hydroelectric Project.  The licensees requested authorization to replace the existing Pawtucket Dam’s wooden flashboards with a pneumatic crest gate system, and to change the configuration of the wooden flashboard system while the new crest gate system is being constructed.  Also called "inflatable flashboards", a pneumatic crest gate system allows the dam operator to increase or decrease the effective height of the flashboard system remotely.

The application was contested. Among other things, Pawtucket Dam is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Lowell Park and two historic districts, one of which is a National Historic Landmark.  Participants in the license amendment case disagreed about whether it is acceptable to alter the crest control structure on top of the dam and whether the effects of
doing so can be adequately mitigated.  Some concern related to the visual impact of the inflatable flashboards, relative to the project's historic context.

But in 2013, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an Order Amending License allowing the licensee to replace the wooden flashboards with a pneumatic crest gate system.  The Commission found "that the proposed pneumatic crest gate system can be installed without unacceptably altering the dam or adversely affecting the park and historic districts."  The Commission therefore granted the licensees’ amendment request, subject to additional conditions.
 
Those conditions included a paragraph in the Order requiring the licensees to take certain actions "to mitigate any adverse effects on historic properties of installing the pneumatic crest gate system."  These license required consultation with the Massachusetts State Historic Preservation Officer and the Lowell National Historical Park to the extent possible.  The conditions also included specific measures including interpretive exhibits, a design for the compressor house featuring "materials and colors that are compatible with the historic fabric of the adjacent architecture, to ensure that the compressor house resembles nineteenth century buildings in Lowell," color and appearance requirements for the inflatable flashboard system.

But National Park Service subsequently indicated its willingness to waive these design-related mitigation requirements.  According to a February 2, 2016, letter from the National Park Service, "it is National Park Service's policy not to make new construction look historic in appearance."  Two days later, the licensee applied to the FERC to remove these mitigation requirements.  That application notes that eliminating these requirements "decreases material ordering time and crest gate system installation time for this long-awaited improvement."

Comments on the application, motions to intervene, and protests are due by April 11, 2016.