Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 39-26.4 - Net Metering

• Commission: means the public utilities commission. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Community remote net-metering system: means a facility generating electricity using an eligible net-metering resource that allocates net-metering credits to a minimum of one account for a system associated with low- or moderate-income housing eligible credit recipients, or three (3) eligible credit-recipient customer accounts, provided that no more than fifty percent (50%) of the credits produced by the system are allocated to one eligible credit recipient, and provided further at least fifty percent (50%) of the credits produced by the system are allocated to the remaining eligible credit recipients in an amount not to exceed that which is produced annually by twenty-five kilowatt (25 KW) AC capacity. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Company: means and includes a person, firm, partnership, corporation, quasi-municipal corporation, association, joint-stock association or company, and his, her, its, or their lessees, trustees, or receivers appointed by any court. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Core forest: refers to unfragmented forest blocks of single or multiple parcels totaling two hundred fifty (250) acres or greater unbroken by development and at least twenty-five (25) yards from mapped roads, with eligibility questions to be resolved by the director of the department of environmental management. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Customer: means a company taking service from an electric distribution company at a single point of delivery or meter location. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
• Docket: A log containing brief entries of court proceedings.
• Electric distribution company: means a company engaging in the distribution of electricity or owning, operating, or controlling distribution facilities and shall be a public utility pursuant to subsection (20) of this section. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Eligible credit recipient: means one of the following eligible recipients in the electric distribution company's service territory whose electric service account or accounts may receive net-metering credits from a community remote net-metering system. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Eligible net-metering resource: means eligible renewable energy resource, as defined in §?39-26-5 including biogas created as a result of anaerobic digestion, but, specifically excluding all other listed eligible biomass fuels. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Eligible net-metering system: means a facility generating electricity using an eligible net-metering resource that is reasonably designed and sized to annually produce electricity in an amount that is equal to, or less than, the renewable self-generator's usage at the eligible net-metering system site measured by the three-year (3) average annual consumption of energy over the previous three (3) years at the electric distribution account(s) located at the eligible net-metering system site. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Eligible net-metering system site: means the site where the eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system is located or is part of the same campus or complex of sites contiguous to one another and the site where the eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system is located or a farm on which the eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system is located. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Excess renewable net-metering credit: means a credit that applies to an eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system for that portion of the production of electrical energy beyond one hundred percent (100%) and no greater than one hundred twenty-five percent (125%) of the renewable self-generator's own consumption at the eligible net-metering system site or the sum of the usage of the eligible credit recipient accounts associated with the community remote net-metering system during the applicable billing period. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Hospital: means and shall be defined and established as set forth in chapter 17 of Title 23. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Low- or moderate-income housing eligible credit recipient: means an electric service account or accounts in good standing associated with any housing development or developments owned or operated by a public agency, nonprofit organization, limited-equity housing cooperative, or private developer that receives assistance under any federal, state, or municipal government program to assist the construction or rehabilitation of housing affordable to low- or moderate-income households, as defined in the applicable federal or state statute, or local ordinance, encumbered by a deed restriction or other covenant recorded in the land records of the municipality in which the housing is located, that:

  (A)  Restricts occupancy of no less than fifty percent (50%) of the housing to households with a gross, annual income that does not exceed eighty percent (80%) of the area median income as defined annually by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD);

  (B)  Restricts the monthly rent, including a utility allowance, that may be charged to residents, to an amount that does not exceed thirty percent (30%) of the gross, monthly income of a household earning eighty percent (80%) of the area median income as defined annually by HUD;

  (C)  Has an original term of not less than thirty (30) years from initial occupancy. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2

• Multi-municipal collaborative: means a group of towns and/or cities that enter into an agreement for the purpose of co-owning a renewable-generation facility or entering into a financing arrangement pursuant to subsection (15). See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Municipality: means any Rhode Island town or city, including any agency or instrumentality thereof, with the powers set forth in title 45. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Net metering: means using electrical energy generated by an eligible net-metering system for the purpose of self-supplying electrical energy and power at the eligible net-metering system site, or with respect to a community remote net-metering system, for the purpose of generating net-metering credits to be applied to the electric bills of the eligible credit recipients associated with the community net-metering system. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Net-metering customer: means a customer of the electric distribution company receiving and being billed for distribution service whose distribution account(s) are being net metered. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Net-metering financing arrangement: means arrangements entered into by a public entity, educational institution, hospital, nonprofit, multi-municipal collaborative, or a commercial or industrial customer with a private entity to facilitate the financing and operation of a net-metering resource, in which the private entity owns and operates an eligible net-metering resource on behalf of a public entity, educational institution, hospital, nonprofit, multi-municipal collaborative, or commercial or industrial customer, where: (i) The eligible net-metering resource is located on property owned or controlled by the public entity, educational institution, hospital, municipality, multi-municipal collaborative, or commercial or industrial customer as applicable; and (ii) The production from the eligible net-metering resource and primary compensation paid by the public entity, educational institution, hospital, nonprofit, multi-municipal collaborative, or commercial or industrial customer to the private entity for such production is directly tied to the consumption of electricity occurring at the designated net-metered accounts. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Nonprofit: means a nonprofit corporation as defined and established through chapter 6 of Title 7, and shall include religious organizations that are tax exempt pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Person: means an individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, farm, town or city of the state of Rhode Island, multi-municipal collaborative, or the state of Rhode Island or any department of the state government, governmental agency, or public instrumentality of the state. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Preferred site: means a location for a renewable energy system that has had prior development, including, but not limited to: landfills, gravel pits and quarries, highway and major road median strips, brownfields, superfund sites, parking lots or sites that are designated appropriate for carports, and all rooftops including, but not limited to, residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal buildings. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Project: means a distinct installation of an eligible net-metering system or a community remote net-metering system. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Public entity: means the federal government, the state of Rhode Island, municipalities, wastewater treatment facilities, public transit agencies, or any water distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state including the water supply board of the city of Providence. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Public utility: means and includes every company that is an electric distribution company and every company operating or doing business in intrastate commerce and in this state as a railroad, street railway, common carrier, gas, liquefied natural gas, water, telephone, telegraph, and pipeline company, and every company owning, leasing, maintaining, managing, or controlling any plant or equipment, or any part of any plant or equipment, within this state for manufacturing, producing, transmitting, distributing, delivering, or furnishing natural or manufactured gas, directly or indirectly, to or for the public, or any cars or equipment employed on, or in connection with, any railroad or street railway for public or general use within this state, or any pipes, mains, poles, wires, conduits, fixtures, through, over, across, under, or along any public highways, parkways, or streets, public lands, waters, or parks for the transmission, transportation, or distribution of gas for sale to the public for light, heat, cooling, or power for providing audio or visual telephonic or telegraphic communication service within this state, or any pond, lake, reservoir, stream, well, or distributing plant or system employed for the distribution of water to the consuming public within this state, including the water supply board of the city of Providence; provided, that, except as provided in § 39-16-9 and in P. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-1-2
• Renewable net-metering credit: means a credit that applies to an eligible net-metering system or a community remote net-metering system up to one hundred percent (100%) of either the renewable self-generator's usage at the eligible net-metering system site or the sum of the usage of the eligible credit-recipient accounts associated with the community remote net-metering system over the applicable billing period. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Renewable self-generator: means an electric distribution service customer of record for the eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system at the eligible net-metering system site which system is primarily designed to produce electrical energy for consumption by that same customer at its distribution service account(s), and/or, with respect to community remote net-metering systems, electrical energy which generates net-metering credits to be applied to offset the eligible credit-recipient account usage. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• Statute: A law passed by a legislature.
• Third party: means and includes any person or entity, other than the renewable self-generator, who or that owns or operates the eligible net-metering system or community remote net-metering system on the eligible net-metering system site for the benefit of the renewable self-generator. See Rhode Island General Laws 39-26.4-2
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• United States: include the several states and the territories of the United States. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-8