66-n. Net metering study. The commission shall conduct a study to analyze the economic and environmental benefits from and the economic cost burden, if any, of the net energy metering program and to analyze the extent to which ratepayers receiving service under the net energy metering program are paying the full cost of services provided to them by combined electric and gas corporations and gas corporations, and the extent to which their customers pay a share of costs of public purpose programs through assessments on their electric and/or gas bills. In analyzing program costs and benefits for the purposes of this study, the commission shall consider all electricity generated by renewable electric generating systems eligible for net metering under sections sixty-six-j and sixty-six-l of this article, including the electricity used onsite to reduce the customer's consumption of electricity that would otherwise be supplied through the electrical grid, as well as electrical output that is being fed back to the electrical grid for which the customer receives credit or net surplus electricity compensation under net energy metering. As it relates to the environmental benefits, the study shall quantify the approximate avoided level of harmful emissions including, but not limited to, information concerning: nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon dioxide, as well as other air pollutants deemed necessary and appropriate for study by the commission. The study shall also quantify the economic costs and benefits of net energy metering to participants and non-participants and shall further disaggregate the results by utility. The study shall also gather and present data on the income distribution of residential net metering participants that is publicly available and aggregated by zip code and county. In order to assess the economic costs and benefits at various levels of net metering implementation, the study shall be conducted using multiple net energy metering penetration scenarios.
The commission shall publish a report from its findings. The report must be published within three hundred sixty-five days of the effective date of this section. A copy of the report must be furnished to the temporary president of the Senate, the speaker of the Assembly, the chair of the Senate energy and telecommunications committee and the chair of the Assembly energy committee.
Last modified: February 3, 2019