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House Research Department Updated: October 2017 <br />Xcel Energy’s Community Solar Garden Program Page 7 <br />•The commissioner of commerce is authorized to settle disputes regarding the aggregate <br />size of co-located solar gardens. <br />•Xcel is not required to upgrade its distribution system to accommodate the <br />interconnection of co-located solar gardens.19 <br />In its September 2016 order, the commission reaffirmed the 1 MW co-location cap. “Allowing <br />co-location beyond 1 MW,” it stated, “would render the statutory limit superfluous, undermine <br />the legislative intent to foster small, widely distributed solar gardens, and create a risk of <br />significant rate increases to nonparticipating ratepayers.”20 <br />Project Completion Deadline Is Set at 24 Months <br />To ensure that unworkable projects do not tie up valuable solar garden sites or absorb undue <br />amounts of program resources, solar developers have a deadline by which a project must be <br />financed and constructed. Xcel’s plan set a deadline of 18 months after an application was <br />determined to be complete; the commission extended it to 24 months.21 <br />End-of-Year Bill Credits Are Purchased by Xcel <br />Solar garden subscribers are compensated via monthly credits on their bills for all solar energy <br />generated, based on their “share” of the total project. Since the size of a subscription can be as <br />large as 120 percent of a customer’s average electricity consumption (calculated on the most <br />recent two years’ usage), credits may exceed a customer’s total bill in a given month, in which <br />case the remaining credits roll over to the next month. <br />Xcel proposed that any credits remaining at the end of February be forfeited, and that subscribers <br />begin March with a zero balance. However, the commission determined that such a provision <br />would violate the statute’s requirement that Xcel purchase all energy generated by the solar <br />garden and that the possibility of forfeiting credits might discourage conservation efforts. It <br />required Xcel to carry all bill credits forward for at least a 12-month period, to purchase all <br />outstanding credits remaining in the billing cycle that includes the last day of February, and to <br />restart the bill-credit system with a zero balance in the following billing period.22 <br />Unsubscribed Energy Is Purchased by Xcel at Different Rates Depending on <br />Project Size <br />While the statute requires Xcel to purchase all energy generated by a solar garden, it is silent as <br />to the rate of payment for energy that is not subscribed by customers. Xcel proposed that it <br />receive this unsubscribed energy at no charge, as an incentive to solar garden managers to make <br />19 Ibid., pp. 12-13. <br />20 September 6, 2016 Order, p. 21. <br />21 September 17, 2014 Order, pp. 12-13. <br />22 April 7, 2014 Order, p. 16.