Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Environment & Energy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Logan bill seeks successor to off‑site group net metering to serve affordable housing, schools and environmental justice communities
Summary
Representative Kate Logan proposed a Renewable Energy for Communities program to replace the off‑site group net‑metering mechanism slated to sunset under Act 179. The bill directs the PUC to design a program to deliver off‑site renewables to defined community beneficiaries and extends the group net‑metering sunset until program launch.
Representative Kate Logan described a proposal to establish a Renewable Energy for Communities program intended to ensure community‑scale and off‑site renewable projects can serve affordable housing, schools, municipalities and environmental justice populations after the scheduled sunsetting of Vermont’s group net‑metering rules.
Logan said the group net‑metering construct has in many cases been difficult to use for community benefit and has produced outcomes stakeholders viewed as problematic. The proposed program would be designed through stakeholder engagement and intended to replace the utility of the earlier group/virtual net‑metering model with a more targeted, lower‑cost mechanism to benefit specific community categories: environmental justice populations (citing the statutory EJ definition), affordable housing developments, school districts and municipal governments.
Because the Renewable Energy Standard (Act 179) requires a study and the PUC and Department of Public Service have been working on successor models, Logan’s bill would set design stakeholders, a January 1, 2027 implementation target for the new program, and extend the current off‑site group net‑metering sunset to December 30, 2026 so the successor program can be implemented without a coverage gap.
Logan said the program could enable, for example, an affordable housing community with limited on‑site space to link to a nearby off‑site array and remove individual electricity bills for residents by allocating generation to a single community meter. Members asked about whether multiple communities could share a single off‑site project; Logan said the bill’s design work could address aggregation and least‑cost procurement approaches.
Ending: The sponsor asked the committee to direct stakeholder engagement to build the program design and provide technical direction on eligibility, procurement, and ratepayer protections ahead of the 2027 implementation goal.
