Panel narrows nonexport generation rules, sends customer-choice bill to Senate after contested hearing

A committee amendment to Senate Bill 615 won approval after a lengthy hearing that pitted business and industry advocates against Entergy and raised detailed questions about how to prevent cost shifting and preserve electric-system reliability.

Sponsor Senator Clint Penzo told the committee SB 615 aims to protect the ability of customers — particularly large commercial and industrial users — to install on-site generation that does not export power to the grid. The sponsor and an industry witness, Jordan Tinsley of Bernhard, said the bill would protect customer choice, bring Arkansas law into alignment with federal rules for qualifying facilities and provide a streamlined state process for nonexport systems so property owners need not pursue costly Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings.

Proponents said the bill targets nonexport facilities that only offset on-site load, comparing them to energy-efficiency investments. Senator Penzo and witnesses argued the measure does not permit net metering or export and said that when facilities truly do not sell power to utilities there is no opportunity for cost shifting.

Entergy testified in opposition. John Bethel and other Entergy witnesses told the committee the measure, as originally drafted, could undermine recent state net-metering reforms and lead to cost shifts or other unintended outcomes. Bethel said customers with behind-the-meter generation can today take service under existing tariffs (for example, cogen or interruptible service) and that the state’s net-metering statute already addresses protections against cost shifting. He argued the bill could permit scenarios in which systems sized to a customer’s highest monthly use would place excess power on the grid in some months.

Danny Hofer, chief of staff at the Arkansas Public Service Commission, told lawmakers the PSC has no formal position on the bill but noted the commission’s legal duty to prevent unreasonable cost shifts in any order it issues. Committee members pressed Hofer and Entergy on whether PSC rulemaking could set guardrails to limit export and set capacity thresholds.

Senator Penzo offered and the committee adopted verbal amendments that: move the bill’s compliance date to March 1, 2026 to give the PSC more time to promulgate rules, and add a direction that the PSC “may” include limits on capacity size as part of its rulemaking on acceptable export-limitation methods. After negotiation the committee approved the bill as amended on a voice vote.

Supporters said the amendment addresses utilities’ operational concerns by explicitly empowering the PSC to write technical rules for export limitation and capacity limits. Opponents cautioned that the PSC will need to be vigilant in its rulemaking to prevent unintended rate impacts. The committee forwarded SB 615 to the full Senate.