MnSEIA 2017 Legislative Recap

Monday, June 19, 2017

MnSEIA Members,

This was not an easy legislative session, but MnSEIA's lobbying work and the support of our members did significantly impact both the dialogue at the Capitol and the final outcome. While the cooperative bill and the Made in Minnesota repealer bill were ultimately passed in the Energy Omnibus Bill, we were able to significantly modify their substance.

Cooperative Bill

The cooperative bill, HF 234, was originally aimed at eliminating the Public Utilities Commission's control over the cooperative utilities in full and gave the cooperatives complete control over their customer complaint processes. MnSEIA was able to push back and secure two gubernatorial vetoes on this bill, which substantially altered the final bill's verbiage. But it was ultimately passed into law.

The newly revised statute will allow for the Cooperative Fee docket (docket 16-512) to go forward as the Commission's last investigation over the co-ops regarding net-metering issues. MnSEIA's sister organization, MnSEIP, will continue to advocate for a just outcome to the Commission's investigative inquiry. Further, systems that are over 20MW can still file disputes with the Commission. Moreover, if a customer has a complaint and the cooperative no longer wants to be under Commission jurisdiction, then the cooperative is required to mediate with the customer. Although retaining Commission jurisdiction was the goal, these are substantial improvements over the original bill proffered by the cooperatives.

Made in Minnesota, RDF Bill

Similarly, the Made in Minnesota repealer bill, HF 235, was heavily altered because of MnSEIA staff lobbying efforts and member involvement. The original bill was designed to eliminate all Made in Minnesota funding from 2017 on. This would have included this year's funding cycle: all of the 2017 submitted applications would have been voided. It also would have eliminated the Renewable Development Fund.

Due primarily to our members' work in the Senate, we were able to stall the bill until the 2017 Made in Minnesota Lottery was completed and the funding was allocated. This alone saved $10 million in funding, 700 installations and a significant sunk cost for participating MnSEIA members and their customers. While the Made in Minnesota program was eliminated when the omnibus bill was passed into law, we were able to secure an extension and expansion of the Solar Rewards Incentive Program.

Originally, Solar Rewards would have ended after 2018. It has now been expanded to 2021 and the funding has been increased to the following: $15 Million in 2018, $10 Million in 2019, $10 Million in 2020 and $5 Million in 2021. With another legislative cycle coming in November of 2018, we will have another opportunity to expand the Solar Rewards program further and we hope for a more solar-friendly state legislature.

Residential PACE / MN Power & Otter Tail Power Small Scale Solar Carveout

There are two other bills that we tracked and worked on. One is the Residential PACE bill. While Residential PACE has been suspended until a working group approves some consumer protections, MnSEIA inserted itself into that working group through pre-session PACE advocacy and has worked diligently to increase the number of residential PACE supporters in the working group. We hope to have Residential PACE operating again by this time next year.

The other solar-related policy passed in the final omnibus bill is the Minnesota Power and Otter Tail Power Small-Scale Solar Carveout increase. Now 40kW systems in Minnesota Power's and Otter Tail Power's service territory and Community Solar Garden subscriptions can count towards their Small Scale Carveout goals. MnSEIA took a generally neutral viewpoint on this bill, because our members had divergent opinions on the policy due to Otter Tail's admittance to procuring Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) in lieu of incentivizing solar in their service territory if this change is not made.

But one significant change we did make to this bill prior to it becoming law was to negotiate the removal of a line that would have allowed the utilities to make a "good-faith effort" to meet the solar energy standard at the Public Utilities Commission. This would have been instead of having the Small Scale Carevout remain a statutory standard. We and our allies pushed back against this language and successfully encouraged the utilities to, at the very least, follow through on their threat to procure RECs in lieu of incentivizing solar in order to meet the state standards.

MnSEIA will track closely the impacts of these bills on its members and their customers, and will work toward resolution and legislative accountability in the coming sessions.

–MnSEIA Staff
 

Category: MnSEIA