Committee explores bill to require residential rates for shared well and septic electric meters in condo associations

The Science, Technology and Energy Committee subcommittee met after the March 3 main session to examine several bills and a draft amendment aimed at a narrow but recurring problem: condominium associations that receive a single electric bill for shared residential pumps (wells, septic lift pumps) are often billed at a general or commercial rate even when the equipment serves only residential units.

Attorneys and association representatives said the result can be higher delivery charges and demand charges that are allocated across all association members, including units that do not use the shared system, and they urged targeted relief. Eric Sweatt (billing analyst) provided a comparison showing sample bills where delivery charges under a general rate produced a total delivery charge of $51.05 for a shared meter while the same usage billed at a residential (domestic) rate would total $30.02 for the same period.

Attorney Eric Shaughnessy, who represents condominium associations, explained the current condominium statute framework: if the condominium declaration or bylaws expressly provide for apportionment, the association can recover specific shared service costs from only those units that use the service; absent that language, the statute now directs that operating costs be assessed to all unit owners. Shaughnessy and association counsel pressed the committee to add a narrow statutory rule so that shared septic and pump meters that solely serve residential units be billed and allocated on a per‑user basis.

Representative Zoe Manos (Stratham) and other advocates said a vendor‑side workaround — placing a meter in an individual homeowner's name — is not a practical or durable fix; utilities reported earlier guidance that billing systems and tariffs are organized by use and by customer class, not by who signs a bill. Unitil and Eversource testimony (via a billing analyst) said current tariff language differentiates "domestic" versus "general" uses and that any change to billing classification would be implemented at the tariff/regulatory level; utilities expressed concern about the operational cost of altering billing systems but said they would work with the committee to identify feasible fixes.

The subcommittee considered an amendment that would add a paragraph to the condominium statute (RSA 3:56‑B:45) requiring that when a shared meter is used exclusively to serve residential condominium units for well and pump service, the billing and chargeback must be allocated only to those units and at domestic rates, even if the homeowners association is the named customer. The subcommittee asked staff to refine statutory cross‑references and to ensure the rule covers municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives as well as the investor‑owned utilities named in existing tariff chapters.

Ending: The subcommittee left the matter open for technical drafting and asked the Department of Energy and utilities to provide implementation cost estimates and to confirm whether municipal utilities and co‑ops are covered by the proposed language. The sponsor will circulate a revised draft that addresses cross‑jurisdictional billing and reporting issues.