An Act concerning certain electric generation facilities, and supplementing Title 40A of the New Jersey Statutes and P.L.1999, c.23 (C.48:3-49 et al.).

Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:

1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section 13 of P.L.1971, c.199 (C.40A:12-13) or of any other law, rule, regulation, or order to the contrary, the governing body of any municipality or county may, by ordinance or resolution, respectively , authorize the license of, sale in fee simple of, or sale of an easement interest in, public streets or roads for the purpose of connecting a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility with an end use customer of that power located on a non-contiguous parcel of land within 10 miles of, and in the same utility territory as, the generator, provided that in the event of a sale in fee simple, the municipality or county, as the case may be, retains an easement interest in the streets or roads for the purpose of maintenance and repair of the streets or roads and any public utilities that may be located on or adjacent to the streets or roads.

2. Upon application of the owner of a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility that enters into a license for the use of, or purchases in fee simple or an easement interest in, a public street or road within a municipality for the purpose of connecting a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility with an end use customer of that power located on a non-contiguous parcel of land as provided pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), the electric public utility that serves that service territory in which that parcel of land is located shall install and maintain the distribution lines between the generation facility and the end use customer of the power. The electric public utility may charge the owner an amount that covers the costs of installation and maintenance and that includes a rate of return on the assets installed that is equal to the rate of return on prudently incurred capital investment in the public utility's rate base.

3. a. The owner of a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 megawatts that enters into a license for the use of, or purchases in fee simple or an easement interest in, a public street or road as provided pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), may connect the generation facility to up to five end use customers of that power. The end use customers of power provided pursuant to this section shall constitute on-site customers of an on-site generation facility and the sale or delivery of the power shall not be subject to the charges enumerated in subsection a. of section 28 of P.L.1999, c.23 (C.48:3-77).

b. The owner of a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility that sells or delivers power to a customer pursuant to the provisions of subsection a. of this section shall not be considered a public utility pursuant to R.S.48:2-13 or P.L.1999, c.23 (C.48:3-49 et al.).

4. The customer of an electric public utility that is a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility with a nameplate capacity of up to 10 megawatts on the customer side of the meter, may designate up to five other customers within 10 miles of the customer-generator within the same public utility service territory that shall be credited by the electric public utility with the excess generation of the customer-generator. The customer-generator may designate the proportionate share of the excess electricity generated to credit to each of the designated customers. The electric public utility's incremental costs of implementing and administering the credits pursuant to this section shall flow through a reconciliation clause of the electric public utility's tariff.

5. a. Upon application to the electric public utility for standby power by (1) the owner of a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility that supplies power to an end use customer pursuant to section 3 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), or (2) the end use customer of that power, the electric public utility shall provide for standby charges.

b. The Board of Public Utilities shall, within 120 days after the effective date of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), establish criteria for fixing rates associated with the assessment and imposition of standby charges, and shall require electric public utilities to file tariff rates with the board in accordance with such criteria.

c. As used in this section, "standby charges" means charges imposed by an electric public utility upon (1) an owner of a solar, wind, combined heat and power, landfill gas, or biomass generation facility that enters into a license for the use of, or purchases in fee simple or an easement interest in, a public street or road to provide power to an end use customer of that power located on a non-contiguous parcel of land as provided pursuant to section 1 of P.L. , c. (C. ) (pending before the Legislature as this bill), or (2) an end use customer of that power, for the recovery of costs necessary to make energy available to the generation facility or the end use customer during a facility power outage including, but not limited to, the allocation of reasonable capital investment costs and operating and maintenance expenses associated with the electric public utility's infrastructure needed to provide such service.

6. This act shall take effect immediately.

STATEMENT

This bill would authorize the governing body of any municipality or county to adopt an ordinance or resolution, respectively, to license, or to sell in fee simple, or as an easement, public streets or roads to connect a solar, wind, landfill gas, combined heat and power, or biomass generation facility with an end use customer of that power that is located on a non-contiguous parcel of land within the same municipality as the generator, provided that in the event of a sale in fee simple, the municipality or county retains an easement interest to maintain and repair the streets or roads or any public utilities on or adjacent to the streets or roads. The bill would require the public utility, upon application by the generator, to install the distribution lines to connect the generator and the end use customer.

Under section 13 of P.L.1971, c.199 (C.40A:12-13), municipalities and counties may only sell real property, capital improvements or personal property, or interests therein, that are not needed for public use. This bill would provide for an exception from current law by allowing a municipality or county to sell either fee simple ownership of, or an easement interest in, or to license the use of, public streets or roads to enable additional solar, wind, combined heat and power or biomass generation facilities to be "on-site generation facilities" under the provisions of the "Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act."