Legislature(2023 - 2024)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
04/10/2024 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB219 | |
| SB152 | |
| SB257 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 152 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 257 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 219 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 152-COMMUNITY ENERGY FACILITIES; NET METERING
1:35:11 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN reconvened the meeting and announced the
consideration of SENATE BILL NO. 152 "An Act relating to
community energy facilities."
He noted that this is the second hearing of SB 152 by the Senate
Labor and Commerce Standing Committee.
1:35:45 PM
SENATOR BILL WIELECHOWSKI, District K, Alaska State Legislature,
Juneau, Alaska, Sponsor of SB 152; gave a recap of SB 152:
• SB 152 will create a framework for community renewable
energy projects and virtual net metering in Alaska.
• Current net metering regulations require that the
generation facility be tied to a specific meter; this bill
will allow for ratepayers to share a facility and share
their net metering benefits across multiple meters.
• Community energy facilities enabled by this bill could be
as small as a four-plex putting a solar array on the roof
and splitting the benefits with all residents, or larger
scale projects that are crowd-funded by subscribers.
• Community solar is the fastest growing area of the
renewable energy sector, and at least 26 states have passed
community solar legislation.
• Since the initial hearing in January, we have worked
closely with utilities and other stakeholders to craft a
committee substitute to ensure this bill works for
utilities and ratepayers.
1:37:00 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN announced invited testimony for SB 152.
1:37:20 PM
SARAH MOON, Co-Founder, Fieldworks Power, San Francisco,
California, said her team had experience developing and
operating community solar projects in the lower 48 and that SB
152 would enable investment from companies like Fieldworks Power
in the State of Alaska. She said SB 152 offered several tangible
benefits:
1. SB 152 would provide an element of energy choice and
freedom to residents and businesses who choose to subscribe
to these projects. She said this enables access to much-
needed bill relief as subscribers to community solar
generally save ten percent or more on their energy costs.
2. Community solar helps to modernize the grid by leveraging
private investment dollars from companies like Fieldworks
Power to improve local distribution infrastructure. This
investment benefits all ratepayers, especially those who
live near the project.
3. Installing these mid-scale projects across the state
improves reliability and resilience by diversifying energy
resources.
4. Because facilities must be built in the utility service
territory where the customer resides, it creates local,
home-grown energy.
MS. MOON said in other states that have already passed community
solar legislation, the impact has been significant. Over 1600
community solar projects have been built across the country,
enough to power over 1 million homes. She said each of these
projects delivered significant investment to the communities
where they are located, not only through grid upgrades, but also
through local jobs, property taxes, lease payments and more.
MS. MOON concluded passing SB 152 will enable local energy
generation, economic development, grid upgrades, increased
reliability and resilience, and electric bill relief for
consumers and businesses.
1:40:19 PM
KEVIN CRAY, Senior Regional Director, Coalition for Community
Solar Access (CCSA), Denver, Colorado, said CCSA is the national
trade organization solely focused on the community solar
industry, representing 120 members in virtually all community
solar markets across the country and at the federal level. He
said CCSA's mission is to expand customer choice and freedom to
access the benefits of solar energy to all Americans regardless
of their ability to host a solar array. He said community solar
fills several notable gaps in the renewable energy space, whose
sizing perspective is to thread between small rooftop systems
that can already be found across the state and large utility-
scale systems that provide bulk power needs to the system. He
said they are commonly two to five megawatts in capacity and
roughly ten to twenty-five megawatts of land-sizing, meaning
they can be located near areas where people live, work and play,
providing energy close to where it would be consumed. This
locational proximity provides increased grid efficiencies by
reducing the need for costly transmission lines to transport
energy from larger systems to load centers that could be
hundreds of miles away. Smaller system sizes also provide
opportunities for smaller landowners to host projects and reap
the benefits of doing so.
1:41:35 PM
MR. CRAY said from an industry perspective CCSA's members have
collectively deployed over $10 billion of private capital to
upgrade the electric grid, bring electric bill savings to
millions of customers across the lower 48 and drive economic
development primarily in rural communities. He said CCSA stands
ready and excited to bring those investments and economic
opportunities northward to the great state of Alaska upon
passage of SB 152.
MR. CRAY noted that economic development opportunities extend
well beyond the temporary construction jobs needed to physically
build the [energy generation] projects to other in-demand
sectors that include engineering, marketing, sales, land
acquisition, siting, etc. He noted tangential industries such as
logging, food and beverage, transportation that would see a
boost in demand from the development of these projects. He said
these benefits precede the economic impacts of subscribing
customers who will put their energy bill savings to use in their
local communities or taking the trip their family has been
looking forward to.
1:42:51 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN opened public testimony on SB 152.
1:43:12 PM
JENNY MARIE-STRIKER, Political Director, The Alaska Center,
Anchorage, Alaska, testified in support of SB 152 on behalf of
The Alaska Center which she said was a state-wide non-profit
organization that seeks to create a thriving, just and
sustainable future for all Alaskans. She said SB 152 would be
very impactful based on communication from Alaskans about the
need for more affordable and accessible community energy. She
described the Solarize program run by The Alaska Center in
Anchorage, Fairbanks and a coalition of other partners, since
2018. She said Solarize brings neighbors, businesses and
community spaces together to purchase solar panels and
installation at group rates. She said there were many people who
would like to access solar energy or participate in the Solarize
program but are unable to for a variety of reasons such as: cost
of solar equipment, inability to support solar equipment, and
renters who don't own their residence. She said SB 152, by
allowing community energy with virtual net metering and a
subscriber model would open energy generation to many more
Alaskans regardless of where they live and whether they own
property or not. In addition to addressing the [energy] needs of
individuals, she said SB 152 would make an impact on Alaska's
overall energy portfolio by encouraging more private investment
from dispersed energy generation.
MS. MARIE-STRIKER noted the natural gas crisis in Alaska and
energy proposals in the legislature to address it. She said SB
152 would add to the toolbox of solutions that Alaskans would
benefit from.
1:45:41 PM
EMILY COHEN, representing self, Anchorage, Alaska, testified in
support of SB 152 and that she supports community solar because
it allows residents who rent to have more choice about the
source of the energy they use. She said solar panel ownership is
currently limited to individuals who own their own homes and
land and solar co-ops would allow renters and homeowners who
live on shaded property to buy into shares of solar energy farms
in their neighborhoods. She said solar energy has been shown to
decrease energy costs for households and renters deserve the
ability to enjoy those cost savings. She advocated for the
ability to choose her source of energy and said the ability to
buy into a community solar cooperative would help counteract the
monopoly that Chugach Electric Association has in Southcentral
Alaska and a more stable and diverse energy portfolio for
Alaska. She noted the looming [natural] gas crisis in Cook Inlet
said passing SB 152 is an excellent way to insure stable energy
production and consumption in the state. She urged the committee
to pass SB 152 and be energy champions for the state.
1:47:02 PM
KYLA KOSEDNAR, representing self, Anchorage, Alaska, said SB 152
would go a long way toward making energy more affordable and
accessible for her family. She said she and her husband own a
home that is part of a homeowner's association (HOA). She said
they don't own their roof and can't invest in rooftop solar,
though she said even if their HOA allowed it, they wouldn't be
able to afford a traditional solar array. She said the community
solar projects proposed by Chugach Electric would not provide
cost savings that would allow them to invest in solar energy
[equipment] and that is why it was important to pass SB 152 to
make energy more accessible to families like theirs and it would
go a long way toward lowering their energy costs. She noted
their two-bedroom townhouse electric bill sometimes exceeds $200
per month in the winter. She said the ability to offset that
cost with savings from solar year-round with virtual net
metering, would make a big difference for their family. She said
passing SB 152 seems like a simple, equitable and inexpensive
way to bring more renewables onto the grid and lower dependency
on natural gas.
1:48:40 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN closed public testimony on SB 152.
1:48:55 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN solicited a motion.
1:48:57 PM
SENATOR GRAY-JACKSON moved to adopt the committee substitute
(CS) for SB 152, work order 33-LS0607\U, as the working
document.
1:49:10 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN objected for purposes of explanation.
1:49:44 PM
DAVID DUNSMORE, Staff, Senator Bill Wielechowski, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, explained the changes in the CS for
SB 152.
[Original punctuation included]
Senate Bill 152
Community Energy Facilities
Summary of Changes Version B to Draft CS Version U
The bill was shortened and streamlined in consultation
with utilities and other stakeholders.
A new Section 1 was added giving the bill the short
title "the Saving Alaskans Money with Voluntary
Community Energy (SAVE) Act."
Throughout the bill, provisions that restated net
metering provisions that currently exist in Regulatory
Commission of Alaska (RCA) regulations were removed.
In new AS 42.05.725 the language related to exemptions
was replaced with a provision that this bill does not
apply to utilities that are exempt from net metering
requirements adopted by the RCA.
In new AS 42.05.727 the term "community energy plan"
is replaced with "community energy tariff." The limit
of 50 megawatts of power from community energy
facilities was removed from this section, and instead
this limit would be set by the utilities and the RCA
through community energy tariffs and regulations.
New Section 42.05.729 was shortened to simply state
that the RCA will adopt rates for community energy
facilities that reflect the full economic value
provided and do not have a negative effect on other
ratepayers. Language was added that the RCA may adopt
different rates for facilities that provide battery
storage.
New AS 42.05.731 was renamed from "Authority of the
commission" to "Authority and duties of the
commission." Provisions were added to this section to
clarify the RCA's role in ensuring the implementation
of community energy programs. The language related to
prevailing wages for construction of community energy
facilities that was previously in new AS. 42.05.733
was moved to this section.
1:51:47 PM
MR. DUNSMORE continued to explain the changes in the CS for SB
152.
New AS 42.05.733 was removed from the bill.
In new AS 42.05.735, terms that are no longer used in
the bill were removed and the definition of
"subscriber" was updated to limit it to residential
ratepayers and commercial ratepayers with monthly
demand of less than 50 kilowatt-hours.
1:52:26 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN noted the new CS for SB 152 would give the
Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) a to-do list for the
projects addressed by the bill. He asked how long it would take
to develop a community solar project, working through the RCA.
1:53:02 PM
MR. DUNSMORE said SB 152 would give the RCA one year after the
effective date to adopt regulations. He said the community
energy tariff filings would have the same timeline the RCA uses
for other tariff filings. Regarding specific projects, he said
the goal of SB 152 was that once utilities have approved energy
tariffs in place, utilities and ratepayers and entities looking
to create community energy projects would be provided regulatory
certainty. He said as long as they are interconnecting within
the standards approved through the utility's energy tariff, the
RCA would not be involved in the process.
1:54:09 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN asked for an explanation of the provision in SB
152 to protect other ratepayers from being negatively impacted.
1:54:23 PM
MR. DUNSMORE said the vision for SB 152 was that it would work
similarly to existing net metering regulations where ratepayers
who participate in the metering are credited with the avoided
cost for the electricity they create but are still required to
pay for things like the base rate which would pay for
administrative and transmission services.
1:54:59 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN asked who would pay for installation and
connection of solar generation equipment to the grid under the
provisions of SB 152.
1:55:20 PM
MR. DUNSMORE said the project owner would pay for the equipment
and installation through terms of the subscriptions.
1:55:50 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN asked the RCA representative to comment on SB
152.
1:56:06 PM
BECKI ALVEY, Advisory Section Manager, Regulatory Commission of
Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska, noted the timeline for the adoption
of regulations within a year of the effective date of SB 152.
She said the current statutory deadline for regulations is two
years. The provisions of SB 152 would supersede statute. Other
than the timeline, she said the RCA had not taken a position on
SB 152, but in December the RCA approved a pilot community solar
program proposed by Chugach Electric Association as a tariff
filing with the RCA.
1:57:34 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN removed his objection. He found no further
objection and CSSB 152 was adopted as the working document.
1:57:51 PM
CHAIR BJORKMAN held SB 152 in the Senate Labor and Commerce
Standing Committee.
#
1:57:59 PM
At ease
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SB152 Public Testimony-Emily Cohen 02.14.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Public Testimony-Katy Smith 02.14.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Public Testimony-Maya Kaup 04.09.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Public Testimony-Paul Seaton 03.27.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Public Testimony-Received as of 01.29.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Blank Draft Proposed CS ver U.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Summary of Changes B to U.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB152 Sectional Analysis ver U.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 152 |
| SB219 Public Testimony-Letter_Aetna 04.08.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 219 |
| SB219 Public Testimony-Dr. Kristin Mitchell 04.07.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 219 |
| SB257 Presentation by HEA to SLAC 04.10.24.pdf |
SL&C 4/10/2024 1:30:00 PM |
SB 257 |