The commission took under advisement a petition from the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA) seeking a market waiver of portions of the pilot community solar regulations to allow projects and applications received after Jan. 1 to be treated consistent with elements of the proposed permanent program during the regulatory transition.

Staff recommended a limited approach to ease the industry's transition to the permanent program and told the commission that although the permanent regulations were published in the Maryland Register on Dec. 13, they had not completed final administrative steps. Staff said a waiver could reduce industry uncertainty while the formal rulemaking process completes.

Several utilities, led by Exelon companies, opposed broad waiver relief, arguing that the Administrative Procedures Act mandates formal rule adoption procedures and that the commission need not adopt interim regulations because the statute and the published permanent regulations already provide mechanisms to carry wait-listed pilot projects into the permanent queue once the permanent program begins. Exelon counsel said the statute preserves queue positions for pilot projects and that the permanent regulations address transition mechanics.

CCSA and developers asked the commission to permit utilities to publicly document reserved or to-be-reserved queue positions for projects applying between Jan. 1 and the final effective date so developers would have the certainty to proceed with financing and other development steps. The commission said it would consider a narrowly tailored directive that allows utilities to prepare a permanent-program queue and to accept applications for future conversion into permanent-program positions and will issue a written disposition after additional consideration.