Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Community Solar topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Public Service Commission accepts community solar, net-metering tariff revisions with July 1 effective date
Summary
The commission accepted tariff revisions from multiple utilities to implement permanent community solar rules and updated net-metering provisions, while stakeholders raised concerns about credit-banking implementation and interconnection timing.
The Public Service Commission on July 9 accepted tariff revisions from Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., Potomac Edison Co., Potomac Electric Power Co. and Delmarva Power and Light Co. designed to implement the commission—s permanent community solar program and update net-metering rules, with a collective effective date of July 1, 2025.
Staff said the filings implement changes to the Code of Maryland Regulations (COMAR) Title 20, Subtitle 62 and align tariffs with recent legislative changes. Eric Delgado of commission staff told commissioners the filings make the community solar pilot permanent and update program parameters to match the revised COMAR provisions.
Commission staff recommended acceptance of the proposed tariff provisions by Potomac Edison and BGE and the revised tariffs filed by Pepco and Delmarva.
Supporters and utilities said they favored moving forward but flagged practical issues that remain. David Buegelman of the Coalition for Community Solar Access said the filings were an important step but raised two continuing concerns: credit-banking mechanics and a timing requirement that delays project interconnection applications. ——We—re supportive of accepting the tariffs today, but the credit-banking and interconnection sequencing remain gating issues,—— Buegelman said.
Joel Michel, representing BGE, said BGE—s filing was intended to comply with House Bill 908 and that separate legislation (identified by staff as House Bill 1036 in the record) would require an interim manual approach until utilities can implement an automated solution. ——We have a manual workaround in place for the July 1 compliance date and plan to file tariff revisions once the automated approach is ready,—— Michel said, estimating an IT solution in 2026.
Stakeholders said Potomac Edison had included tariff language implementing credit banking on a billing-period basis, while other utilities planned interim quarterly allocations until IT updates are complete. Buegelman said the interconnection sequencing in the tariffs—requiring subscriber-organization approval before an interconnection application—can add roughly six to 10 weeks to project timelines and is increasingly urgent given recent federal tax law changes that accelerate developers— schedules.
Commissioners voted to accept the tariff revisions for filing with an effective date of July 1, 2025.
The commission noted that some utilities will need to file additional tariff revisions to fully implement recent legislation and directed them to comply with record requirements when they are able to automate tracking and allocations.
