By James H. Laskey of Norris McLaughlin P.A.
On Oct. 7, 2024, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (“BPU”) approved a Notice of Proposed Substantial Changes Upon Adoption to Proposed Amendments to the Community Solar Energy Program (“CSEP”) Rules (the “Notice”). CSEP is a program that enables developers of large solar energy projects to resell the energy generated by their projects to multiple subscribers (homeowners, renters, and businesses) in the local community at a lower price than the standard retail price charged by local utilities.
Community solar began in New Jersey several years ago, but the formal regulations still reflect arrangements for a pilot program, even though the BPU has concluded that program was a success and should be replaced by a permanent program.
The BPU first proposed amendments to the pilot program rules to create the permanent program in September 2023, but those rules were never adopted. Instead, the BPU reviewed comments received on the proposed permanent program and has now proposed this Notice. In addition to adopting the proposed 2023 amendments, this Notice proposes revisions responding to the public comments received for the September 2023 proposal related to program eligibility, subscription requirements, cost recovery, Administratively Determined Incentive (“ADI”) Program eligibility, and the Successor Solar Incentive (“SuSI”) Program registration process. The pertinent proposed revisions are as follows:
CSEP Program Eligibility
- BPU proposes adding “mining sites” to the list of permitted site types in the CSEP. This term would be defined as “a sand mine, gravel pit, or mine on land classified as “Extractive mining” in Level II of the modified Anderson classification system within the most recent Land Use/Land Cover GIS [Geographic Information System] data layer produced by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. A mining site would exclude forested land as defined at N.J.A.C. 14:8-12.2.”
- BPU proposes modifying the co-location requirement of the CSEP to remove language distinguishing adjacent buildings with the same beneficial owner from those with different beneficial owners. The new language would not deem projects to be co-located if they are located on rooftops of separate buildings on different properties with different beneficial owners.
- BPU proposes allowing electric distribution companies (“EDCs”) to own community solar projects under limited circumstances. EDCs would be allowed to register projects in the CSEP for any capacity that is not fully subscribed by the end of an energy year.
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