House Hearing On PUC Rules Limiting Benefits Of Manure Digester Electric Systems

The House Consumer Affairs Committee Wednesday held a hearing on House Bill 1349 (Zimmerman-R-Lancaster) the sponsor said would remove the limits imposed by the Public Utility Commission on the size and benefit of manure digesters generating electricity on farms (sponsor summary).

Rep. David Zimmerman provided an overview of the issue to the Committee saying the current PUC regulations under consideration would limit the benefits of digesters in generating electricity and contributing to the reduction of pollutants going to the Chesapeake Bay.

Ann Swanson, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission, testified that the Commission has been working to support deployment of manure to energy systems throughout the watershed by promoting policies that will make them feasible both economically and environmentally.

She explained manure to energy systems can be an important tool for farmers as they face increasing challenges to their management of manure and encouraged the committee to move forward with efforts that will remove barriers to the installation of these systems and enable them to be economically sustainable.

Grant Gulibon, Director of Regulatory Affairs for the PA Farm Bureau, the regulations recently proposed by the PUC will determine who among home-grown generators of electricity will qualify for net metering treatment.

He argued the PUC’s strict use of the “capacity” standard does not make sense in situations where systems are developed and operated on working farms and may significantly hurt the future ability of Pennsylvania’s farm families to adapt their operations to keep their farms viable.

John Williamson, of TeamAg, Inc. on behalf of the Professional Dairy Managers of Pennsylvania, said House Bill 1349 addresses concerns that the proposed PUC regulations will limit the net metering provisions that have benefited dairies and livestock operations with digesters.

“Pennsylvania was a leader in the development of manure anaerobic digesters during the first decade of 2000’s, with the Commonwealth’s promotion strategy through its Pennsylvania Energy Harvest Grants and net metering provisions of the AEPS…Since the PUC’s proposed rule change in 2014, there have been no more new digesters.”

Ron Celentano, Pennsylvania Solar Energy Industries Association, testified that about 45 states have some form of net metering and 16 of them recently enacted or are considering changes to their existing net metering policies; some states are expanding net metering by increasing aggregate caps or allowing meter aggregation or virtual net metering, while others are examining successor tariffs to net metering, or requiring solar capacity limitations, such as in Pennsylvania.

He expressed concern with the PUC’s proposed rules regarding net metering, expressing opposition to the proposed changes that would give the Commission the authority to order utilities to charge customer generators additional fees, rejecting the imposition of a 200 percent of annual load limitation on solar PV system capacities, and opposing the change to the definition of “virtual meter aggregation” that adds a requirement that all service locations must have separate existing measurable loads.

Donna Clark, Vice President and General Counsel of the Energy Association of Pennsylvania, addressed industry support for and concerns with net-metering as it currently stands in Pennsylvania.

Gladys Brown, Chair of the Public Utility Commission discussed the evolution of net-metering in Pennsylvania and said Pennsylvania presently has more than 8,700 net-metered facilities. She noted the vast majority of these facilities are solar.

Based on the PUC’s experience in implementing the current net metering regulations, Brown said the PUC it is necessary update and revise these regulations to comply with Act 35 of 2007 and Act 129 of 2008.

She clarified that the proposed rulemaking, in part, only seeks to limit the size of systems that seek to take advantage of the public subsidy provided via net metering. The bill itself, she continued, makes no specific reference to net metering and could be interpreted as having no impact on the Commission’s proposed rulemaking.

She added the PUC’s proposed rulemaking seeks to limit new customer-generator systems that qualify for net metering subsidies to a nameplate capacity that produces no more than 200 percent of their historical load.

“This exceptional language was crafted with input from the Pennsylvania Departments of Agriculture and Environmental Protection in recognition of the comments received from the agricultural community during our initial public comment period,” Brown pointed out.

Other written testimony was provided to the Committee by: Michael Brubaker, Brubaker Farms, LLC, Mark Pedersen, PA Waste Industries Association, Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding.

Rep. Bob Godshall (R-Montgomery) serves as Majority Chair and Rep. Peter Daley (D-Washington) serves as Minority Chair.

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