2020 Nevada Revised Statutes
Chapter 704 - Regulation of Public Utilities Generally
NRS 704.7865 - Certain electric utilities required to offer program to eligible customers in service area; limitation on size of program; regulations establishing program standards; submission of plan to implement program; preferred sites for utility scale solar energy resource development.

1. An electric utility shall offer an expanded solar access program to eligible customers within its service area in accordance with the provisions of this section. The size of the expanded solar access program shall not exceed:

(a) For an electric utility that primarily serves densely populated counties, a total capacity of 240,000 megawatt-hours; and

(b) For an electric utility that primarily serves less densely populated counties, a total capacity of 160,000 megawatt-hours.

2. The Commission shall adopt regulations establishing standards for the expanded solar access program. The regulations must:

(a) Advance the development of solar energy resources in this State, including, without limitation, utility scale and community-based solar resources;

(b) Provide for the expanded solar access program to include a reasonable mixture of community-based solar resources and utility scale solar resources;

(c) Provide a plan for community participation in the siting and naming of community-based solar resources;

(d) Provide for solar workforce innovations and opportunity programs related to the construction, maintenance and operation of solar resources, including opportunities for workforce training, apprenticeships or other job opportunities at community-based solar resources;

(e) Provide for equitably broadened access to solar energy;

(f) Provide for the creation of an expanded solar access program rate for participating eligible customers that:

(1) Is based, among other factors, on a new utility scale solar resource accepted by the Commission in an order issued pursuant to NRS 704.751, as approved by the Commission;

(2) Is a fixed rate that replaces the base tariff energy rate and deferred accounting adjustment charged by the electric utility for participating customers and which is adjusted in accordance with the Commission’s quarterly calculations;

(3) For low-income eligible customers, provides for a lower rate, the cost of which must be allocated across all of the rate classes of the utility;

(4) For eligible customers who are not low-income eligible customers, provides stability and predictability and the opportunity for a lower rate; and

(5) Includes for all participating customers any other applicable charges including, without limitation, the universal energy charge, franchise fees, the renewable energy program rate and base tariff general rates, except that the Commission may reduce one or more of these charges for low-income eligible customers to ensure that such customers receive a lower rate pursuant to subparagraph (3);

(g) Establish a process for identifying noncontiguous geographic locations for community-based solar resources which, to the extent practicable, must be located in communities with higher levels of low-income eligible customers;

(h) Provide for the use of at least one utility scale solar resource and at least three but not more than ten community-based solar resources within the service territory of the electric utility;

(i) Require not less than 50 percent of the employees engaged or anticipated to be engaged in construction of community-based solar resources to be residents of this State, which residency may be demonstrated, without limitation, by a notarized statement of the employee that he or she is a resident of this State;

(j) Provide for a mechanism for the host sites of community-based solar resources to receive compensation from the utility for the use of such site;

(k) Provide for the use of a combination of new and other renewable energy facilities, which may be either utility scale or community-based solar resources, that were submitted to the Commission for approval after May 1, 2018, and that were not placed into operation before April 1, 2020;

(l) Provide for an application and selection process for eligible customers to participate in the program;

(m) Ensure reasonable and equitable participation by eligible customers within the service area of the electric utility;

(n) Ensure that eligible customers are able to participate in the program regardless of whether the customer owns, rents or leases the customer’s premises;

(o) Require that:

(1) Twenty-five percent of the capacity of the program, as provided in subsection 1, be reserved for low-income eligible customers;

(2) Twenty-five percent of the capacity of the program, as provided in subsection 1, be reserved for disadvantaged businesses and nonprofit organizations; and

(3) Fifty percent of the capacity of the program, as provided in subsection 1, be reserved for eligible customers who are fully bundled residential customers who own, rent or lease their residence and who certify in a statement which satisfies the requirements established by the Commission pursuant to paragraph (p) that they cannot install solar resources on their premises;

(p) Establish the requirements for a fully bundled residential customer to certify that he or she cannot install solar resources on his or her premises; and

(q) Establish standards for the form, content and manner of submission of an electric utility’s plan for implementing the expanded solar access program.

3. An electric utility shall file a plan for implementing the expanded solar access program in accordance with the regulations adopted by the Commission pursuant to subsection 2.

4. The Commission shall review the plan for the implementation of the expanded solar access program submitted pursuant to subsection 3 and issue an order approving, with or without modifications, or denying the plan within 210 days. The Commission may approve the plan if it finds that the proposed expanded solar access program complies with the regulations adopted by the Commission pursuant to subsection 2.

5. In administering the provisions of this section, the electric utility and the Commission shall establish as the preferred sites for utility scale development of solar energy resources pursuant to this section brownfield sites and land designated by the Secretary of the Interior as Solar Energy Zones and held by the Bureau of Land Management.

6. As used in this section:

(a) "Brownfield site" has the meaning ascribed to it in 42 U.S.C. § 9601.

(b) "Community-based solar resource" means a solar resource which has a nameplate capacity of not more than 1 megawatt and is owned and operated by the electric utility and connected to and used as a component of the distribution system of the electric utility.

(c) "Disadvantaged business" means a business for which:

(1) Fifty-one percent or more of the owners are women, veterans, members of a racial or ethnic minority group or otherwise part of a traditionally underrepresented group; and

(2) None of the owners has a net worth of more than $250,000, not including the equity held in the business or in a primary residence.

(d) "Electric utility" has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 704.187.

(e) "Electric utility that primarily serves densely populated counties" has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 704.110.

(f) "Electric utility that primarily serves less densely populated counties" has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 704.110.

(g) "Eligible customer" means:

(1) A fully bundled general service customer; or

(2) A fully bundled residential customer of a utility.

(h) "Fully bundled customer" means a customer of an electric utility who receives energy, transmission, distribution and ancillary services from an electric utility.

(i) "Fully bundled general service customer" means a fully bundled customer who is a nonresidential customer with a kilowatt-hour consumption that does not exceed 10,000 kilowatt-hours per month.

(j) "Fully bundled residential customer" means a fully bundled customer who is a single-family or a multifamily residential customer.

(k) "Low-income eligible customer" means a natural person or household who is a fully bundled residential customer of a utility and has an income of not more than 80 percent of the area median income based on the guidelines published by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development.

(l) "Solar Energy Zone" means an area identified and designated by the Bureau of Land Management as an area well-suited for utility-scale production of solar energy, and where the Bureau of Land Management will prioritize solar energy and associated transmission infrastructure development.

(m) "Solar resource" means a facility or energy system that uses a solar photovoltaic device to generate electricity.

(n) "Solar workforce innovations and opportunity program" means a workforce education, training and job placement program developed by the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation and its appropriate industry sector council in conjunction with potential employers and community stakeholders.

(o) "Utility scale solar resource" means a solar resource which has a nameplate capacity of at least 50 megawatts and is interconnected directly to a substation of the electric utility through a generation step-up transformer.

(Added to NRS by 2019, 2311)