House committee advances bill tightening consumer disclosures for rooftop solar, authorizes LMP pilot and capacity caps

A Kansas House committee voted to advance House Bill 2149, a comprehensive rewrite of state rules for customer‑scale distributed energy systems that the committee’s reviser said adds consumer protections, modifies compensation for exported energy and establishes a temporary pilot for locational marginal pricing.

Nick Myers, the committee reviser, said the substitute amendment requires residential distributed‑energy retailers who enter contracts for systems on single‑family homes and duplexes to provide prospective customers with a standard disclosure form developed and published by the Kansas attorney general’s advisory group. The advisory group must be convened by the attorney general and publish the standard disclosure form on the attorney general’s website before July 1, 2025, under the amendment.

The substitute also moves several provisions into a revised Parallel Generation statute and changes compensation for small systems. The amendment strikes an existing 150% payment metric for small systems and requires compensation of not less than 100% of the utility’s monthly avoided cost; it also authorizes utilities to use locational marginal pricing (LMP) or monthly system average cost when determining compensation and includes a sunset for that LMP/monthly-cost option in 2030.

The bill creates registration and consumer‑protection requirements for distributed‑energy retailers, including a requirement that businesses be registered with the Secretary of State to operate in Kansas and a civil penalty cap of up to $10,000 for violations of the disclosure requirements. Myers told the committee the civil‑penalty provision allows an aggrieved customer, the attorney general or a county or district attorney to bring enforcement actions.

The substitute adds an explicit cap on total distributed energy interconnections under parallel generation and net‑metering programs: utilities must permit customer systems so long as cumulative customer generation does not exceed 6% of the utility’s historic peak power demand as of July 1, 2025; that cap rises to 7% on July 1, 2026 and 8% on July 1, 2027. For one year after July 1, 2025, the substitute allows utilities to deny parallel generation service to new or expanded customers taking service at or above 34.5 kV and to exclude such customers’ new load from the historic peak used in the percentage calculation.

The revised bill also requires certain operational and safety provisions (technical standards and disconnect mechanisms) and clarifies that the Kansas Corporation Commission’s authority to set contract terms for parallel generation applies only to investor‑owned utilities. The substitute carries an effective date for the consumer‑disclosure provisions of July 1, 2025, and the attorney general’s advisory‑group work begins upon publication in the Kansas Register so the standardized disclosure will be available by that date.

Kimberly Ginterswati, representing Kansas Municipal Utilities, told the committee the amendment addresses many municipal concerns and highlighted one requested language change the committee adopted: the substitute now requires retailers to declare whether a contract will result in a property lien. Ginterswati said that disclosure is intended to prevent homeowners from discovering liens when they try to sell their property.

Jessica Lucas of the Clean Energy Business Council and a representative of Kansas electric cooperatives both described compromises in the substitute. Lucas said an annual reconciliation with a floor was retained in part to prevent customers who export energy from avoiding negative market prices in any monthly settlement; a multi‑party negotiator explained the annual reconciliation and the temporary LMP pilot as transitional steps toward more market‑based pricing and broader adoption of storage.

Committee debate included several procedural motions. Representative John Hoheisel moved initially to pass the bill; Representative Roth seconded that motion. Representative John Carmichael later moved adoption of the balloon substitute, with scrivener’s permission to the reviser; Representative Roth seconded. The committee adopted the substitute and then passed HB 2149 out favorably as amended. Committee members recorded no roll‑call tally on the floor during the recorded audio; the committee chair asked for a show‑of‑hands vote and several members requested their affirmative votes be recorded in the minutes.

Ending: With the substitute accepted and the bill passed out favorably as amended, committee members said they expect continued stakeholder negotiations and potential trailer bills; the attorney general’s advisory group and the Kansas Corporation Commission process were identified as the next implementation steps.