Ordinance 1584
Be it ordained by the Mayor and City Council that the City of Carmi and Carmi Light and Water Adopt the following: Illinois Municipal Utilities Association Net Metering Policy
2022 Section 1: The City of Carmi Municipal Electric Department (CME) shall make available, upon request, net metering service to any customer taking service from CME and who meets the requirements set forth in this policy. For purposes of this policy “net metering” means service to an electric customer under which electric energy generated by that electric customer from an eligible on-site generating facility owned by that customer and, under some circumstances, delivered to the local distribution facilities, may be used to offset electric energy provided by the electric utility to the electric customer as provided for in this policy.
Section 2: For purposes of this policy an eligible on-site generating facility shall be defined as a renewable generating facility such as a photovoltaic facility and small wind turbines. Other forms of renewable generation shall be considered on a case-by-case basis. In all cases, facilities interconnected must be deemed to be renewable to qualify for this policy.
Section 3: The electric generating facility must also abide by CME Interconnection Standards currently in place.
Section 4: Subject to the limitations set forth herein, CME shall make net metering service available upon request to any CME residential or small commercial electric customer with an eligible on-site generating facility owned by the customer. The determination whether a customer is a residential or small commercial customer is based on the rate classification under which the customer takes electric service. The eligible on-site generating facility shall be located on the customer’s premises and on the customer’s side of the billing meter and be sized to primarily produce only enough electricity to offset the customer’s own electrical requirements. Proper sizing of eligible on-site generating facilities shall be determined as set forth in Section 11 below.
Section 5: Any request for net metering service by a customer that is not a residential or small commercial customer shall be considered on a case-by-case basis. The decision with respect to such facilities shall be made by the Mayor of Carmi based on potential impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof and to the property of other customers of CME. Customers that do not qualify for net metering service under this Policy shall be permitted to interconnect and self-generate as required by and in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s rules under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) on a case by case basis.
Section 6: Notwithstanding the provisions in Section 4, CME reserves the authority to limit the size of a customer net metered installation to a size such that the electrical output will not, as a matter of routine operation, exceed the electric load of the structure on which it is installed.
Section 7: Energy generated by the customer-owned generator will offset the energy required by the customer’s load during the billing period. For any energy generated by the customer in excess of the energy required by the customer’s loads for a given billing period a credit shall be carried forward to the customer’s next billing period. In no case shall credits for excess energy be carried forward for a period greater than three billing periods. In the event of termination of an account qualifying for net metering under this policy, any outstanding credits are surrendered. Under no circumstances will there be payments, or credit transfers for excess energy.
Section 8: Any costs CME incurs associated with the net metering program, including but not limited to changes in metering, other physical facilities or billing-related costs, shall be born by the participants in the net metering program provided however that such costs shall be capped at $1,500 to each qualifying customer interconnecting facilities of 10kW or less. For those facilities greater than 10kW that are deemed to qualify under this policy, all costs associated with the program shall be born by the participant.
Section 9: [This Section left blank intentionally.] Section 10: CME shall develop such documents as needed to implement this policy. Section 11: The maximum size in kilowatts (alternating current – AC) of the eligible on-site generating facility for an individual customer service location in the rate categories identified in Section 4 shall be determined as follows:
The installation of a renewable generating facility under this Policy is intended to supply all or a portion of the customer’s own usage of electricity. Therefore, in order to be approved, a renewable generating facility must be properly sized so as not to exceed the customers expected annual usage based on the customer’s current energy needs. It is also important to the customer that the generating facilities are properly sized because the credits under this Policy for excess energy delivered to the distribution system expire if not used within the time period established in this Policy. As part of the interconnection application, customer’s energy usage will be analyzed using 36-months of historical energy usage (if available) in order to calculate the customer’s expected annual usage. If a customer provides documentation specifying why the usage has increased over that time, such as home renovation/addition or installation of electric heating or an electric vehicle charging station on the premises, then the previous 12-month period shall be used to determine the average for the expected annual usage. If the applicable months of data are not available for an individual customer, the average usage amounts by other similar customers of CME, as determined by CME, shall be used to set the expected annual usage. If facilities are allowed for customers in other rate classes, the right-sizing shall be determined on a case by case basis.
In addition to the foregoing historic usage, CME shall consider potential adverse impacts to the distribution system and to other customers of CME that will be caused by or expected to be caused by the installation of the new renewable generating facility at the particular customer service location as part of the interconnection application review. The maximum size of the eligible on-site generating facility for an individual customer service location shall be reduced below the expected annual usage of the customer to mitigate the potential adverse impacts to the distribution system or portions thereof and to the other customers of CME unless the customer pays for any necessary upgrade to the system or portion thereof to avoid the potential adverse impact.
Section 12: CME reserves the right to interpret, amend or rescind this policy. Nothing herein is intended to nor shall it create a right for a customer to rely on any particular netting or crediting methodology contained in the policy from time to time, and all rates for excess credits are subject to change in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois governing municipalities.
