N.J. Admin. Code § 14:8-9.6

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 21, November 4, 2024

Section 14:8-9.6 - Subscription requirements

(a) All subscription requirements pertaining to the CSEP and Pilot Program shall apply to both the original subscription and to all subsequent subscriptions enacted throughout the lifetime of a project, unless expressly determined otherwise by rule or Board Order.

(b) The minimum number of participating subscribers for each community solar project shall be set at 10 subscribers.

(c) There is no maximum number of participating subscribers for each community solar project.

(d) Community solar projects sited on the property of multi-family buildings are exempt from the 10-subscrIber minimum, so long as they demonstrate that the project is intended to provide specific, identifiable, and quantifiable benefits to the households residing in said buildings.

(e) All rate classes, except lighting customers, are eligible for participation in a community solar project.

(f) The following requirements regarding subscribers shall apply:

1. Community solar project subscriptions shall not exceed 100 percent of the subscriber's historic annual usage, excluding net-metered generation, calculated over the past 12 months, available at the time of the application. In cases where a 12-month history is not available, the community solar subscriber organization shall estimate, in a commercially reasonable manner, a subscriber's load based on available history or projections.

2. No single subscriber shall subscribe to more than 40 percent of a community solar project's total annual net energy.

3. Subscriptions are portable, provided that the subscriber remains within the original EDC service territory. Appropriate notice of the change In residence and/or location must be provided to the EDC and subscriber organization no later than 30 days after the effective date of the change in residence and/or location.

4. Subscriptions may be canceled by subscribers as specified in their subscription agreements. Subscribers may not sell or transfer a subscription to another party other than the project owner or community solar subscriber organization.

5. A subscriber may not participate in more than one community solar project. It is the responsibility of the subscriber organization to verify that their subscribers are not already subscribed to another community solar project.

6. When an EDC account associated with a community solar project is terminated or suspended for any reason, the EDC must notify the subscriber organization of the change within30 days of the suspension or termination.

(g) In cases of master-mete red buildings, the account holder of the master meter shall be allowed to subscribe to community solar subscriptions on behalf of its tenants. The account holder of the master meter will be required to provide to the project's subscriber organization, an affidavit that will be made available to the Board that specific, identifiable, sufficient, and quantifiable benefits of the community solar subscription are being passed through to the tenants. Nothing In this subsection prohibits the account holder from signing a separate subscription for the separately metered building common areas.

(h) A community solar project shall not enroll customers that subscribe to more than 100 percent of the output of the community solar facility at the project's capacity.

(i) A subscriber organization may contract with customers placed on a waitlist for a community solar project, to be subscribed upon availability of capacity. The subscriber organization shall notify the customer and confirm a customer's eligibility upon activation of a waitlisted subscription.

(j) All community solar projects must have a minimum of 51 percent of project capacity subscribed by LMI subscribers throughout the qualified life of the project. Projects are subject to the provisions at N.J.A.C. 14:8-9.8(e) and (g) if this minimum is not met.

(k) Community solar projects may have subscribers anywhere In the EDC service territory to which they are interconnected, unless they indicated otherwise in their application to participate in the Pilot Program. Projects that elected in their Pilot Program application to place a geographic restriction on the subscribers to the project must maintain that restriction for the lifetime of the project. The Board may waive this geographic restriction during the project's operational period in response to a petition for good cause shown.

(I) Beginning April 1, 2025, a local government may submit a registration for a municipal community solar automatic enrollment project that requests an exemption from the provisions at N.J.A.C. 14:8- 9.10(b)li, which mandate subscriber enrollment through affirmative consent of the subscriber. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, an automatic enrollment project shall be subject to all other rules of the CSEP, as well as to the following provisions:

1. Any registration for an automatic enrollment project must include a municipal ordinance or resolution authorizing the project and application, stating that the local government intends to manage the project as a municipal community solar automatic enrollment project and the mechanism by which it intends to enroll customers. A copy of the ordinance or resolution shall be presented to the SuSI Program registration manager as part of the registration;

2. (Reserved)

3. The automatic enrollment project shall be owned and operated by the local government or served by the local government as its subscriber organization for the duration of the project life. Ownership and operation shall nonetheless permit a period of temporary third-party tax credit investor ownership or ownership of the solar panels and related equipment by a third party in order to improve the financeability of the automatic enrollment project, subject to contractual provisions that maintain the local government entity's ultimate control of subscriptions for the automatic enrollment project;

4. (Reserved)

5. The local government may utilize a public procurement to contract for the third-party design, financing, ownership, construction, operation, and/or maintenance of the automatic enrollment project, as well as for the enrollment and management of project subscribers. Any such contractor, consultant, or other government designee shall execute a confidentiality agreement with the local government entity and provide guarantees of compliance with this subchapter, including the rules relating to consumer privacy and protection at N.J.A.C. 14:8- 9.10. Any public procurement shall comply with all applicable laws;

6. An automatic enrollment project may not subscribe customers unless the project is billed through consolidated billing and provides a guaranteed bill credit discount to the customers;

7. The local government shall be responsible for identifying the customers that will be automatically enrolled for participation in the automatic enrollment project, subject to the following criteria:

i. The local government may automatically subscribe residential customers and affordable housing providers. At least 80 percent of capacity shall be subscribed by or reserved for LMI subscribers. Subscribers may not also be net-metering customer-generators;

ii. All customers selected to be automatically enrolled as subscribers to the automatic enrollment project shall be within the geographic boundaries of the local government that owns the community solar project or serves as the subscriber organization of the project;

iii. Subscribers shall be allowed to decline or opt out from their participation in the automatic enrollment project at any time. If a participating customer opts out of an automatic enrollment project, the solar credit shall be eliminated on a prospective basis in new billing months with no retroactive adjustments, except for billing errors;

iv. Opt-out requests may be submitted by phone, in writing, or online through a designated website designed and nnaintained by the local government, or its designee. The records of opt-out requests shall be accessible for viewing on an ongoing basis by Board staff; and

v. All customer personal information provided to a subscriber organization shall be deemed confidential and is exempt from the public disclosure requirements of the Open Public Records Act, NJ.S.A. 47:1A-1 et seq. Such information shall not be used, sold, or disseminated by any person for any purpose other than the facilitation of the automatic enrollment project;

8. Subscribers shall not be charged a fee for their enrollment In the automatic enrollment project or any exit fees or penalties for opting out from the automatic enrollment project. Any other fees or modification thereof must be approved by the Board through a petition submitted no less than 120 days prior to their proposed effective date;

9. The local government, or its designee, if applicable, selected through the public procurement process set forth in this subchapter, shall provide written notice delivered by the United States Postal Service to all selected subscribers of their enrollment in the community solar project no less than 90 days before the subscribers receive their first bill credits for participating in the automatic enrollment project. Another written notice shall be sent by the local government, or Its designee, as a reminder of their enrollment no later than 30 days before the subscribers receive their first bill credits for participating In the automatic enrollment project. A draft of the notice and envelope, as well as any subsequent revisions, shall be submitted to the Board and the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel for comments, revisions, and approval at least 60 days prior to their intended use. The notice shall be sent to prospective subscribers in both English and Spanish and be made available in other languages upon request. The notice shall include the following:

i. A statement that the local government is establishing an automatic enrollment project. The statement shall include a clear definition of community solar, a basic description of the Program and premise that there are potentially other projects and competing subscription opportunities, the date on which the automatic enrollment project was approved by municipal resolution or ordinance, and the date on which the automatic enrollment project was registered with the Board;

ii. A statement that the prospective subscriber has the right to opt out of the automatic enrollment project at any time, but that if no opt out is received, the prospective subscriber will be enrolled in the automatic enrollment project;

iii. A specific written statement of the consolidated billing procedures of the automatic enrollment project;

iv. A statement that subscribers may opt out from their participation in the automatic enrollment project at any time and detailed Instructions on how to submit an opt-out request;

v. The estimated start date of their enrollment In the automatic enrollment project; and

vi. A contact name, phone number, and email address for subscriber inquiries and complaints managed by the local government, or their designee;

10. The local government shall provide a contact name, phone number, email address, and website portal for subscribers to submit inquiries or complaints. This information shall figure prominently on the local government website, as well as the website of any contracted subscriber organization;

11. An automatic enrollment project may suspend or cancel a subscription in the event of suspension or cancellation of an EDC account;

12. In the event that an automatic enrollment project is found to be in material violation of any applicable rule, the Board may immediately and permanently cancel the automatic enrollment project's exemption at N.J.A.C. 14:8-9.10(b) l, after notice and failure to remedy the violation. In the event of such cancelation, the automatic enrollment project may be prohibited from employing opt out subscriber enrollment for the remainder of the automatic enrollment project's life. All subscribers wishing to continue their enrollment in the automatic enrollment project shall be required to affirmatively consent to their re-enrollment pursuant to N.J.A.C. 14:8-9.10(b) l; and

13. The EDCs shall take necessary steps to facilitate local government access to the historic billing usage of customers, point of delivery, identification number, if applicable, and other information required by the local government to subscribe customers in an automatic enrollment project, upon satisfactory evidence that the automatic enrollment project is duly authorized by a local government ordinance or resolution, as appropriate, and by the Board. The EDCs shall provide this information for all residential customers in the municipality, upon the request of the local government, to facilitate the customer identification and enrollment process by the local government. This local government access shall be for the purposes of identifying and enrolling customers and determining subscribers' historic annual usage, in order to appropriately size subscribers' community solar subscriptions in compliance with (f)l above. The local government shall indemnify the EDC for any breach of customer information. The EDCs shall facilitate the customer billing process.

N.J. Admin. Code § 14:8-9.6

Adopted by 51 N.J.R. 232(a), effective 2/19/2019

Amended by 53 N.J.R. 2053(a), effective 12/6/2021

Amended by 56 N.J.R. 1990(d), effective 10/7/2024