Fitchburg Gas & Electric Seeks Change in Default Service Tariff, Allocation of Costs

Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company (Unitil) has filed at the Massachusetts DPU to implement a change to its default service tariff regarding costs included in the default service reconciliation (Docket 12-42).

Unitil is preparing for the closure of its Net Metering Tariff to private (non-municipal and other government entities) customers. Unitil reported that the 1% cap of 1.02 MW for Unitil's private customers is nearly filled at this time and is expected to be filled shortly.

Those customers who have applied for net metering and who are not able to receive net metering will be treated according to the tariff for qualifying facilities and on-site generating facilities (QF tariff) and 220 CMR 8.00.

Unitil said that it does not plan to install bidirectional interval meters with telemetering on customers with on-site generators under 60 kW who receive service under the QF tariff. "One reason for doing so is that Unitil expects that the net metering private cap will be expanded beyond the current 1% level. It is expected that those customers who had been previously denied net metering will be allowed net metering at that time, based on a queuing process. Instead, Unitil's current AMI meters are able to register power flow in two directions and store these billing reads for billing customers under the QF tariff. The energy that flows to the customer will be recorded and billed full delivery and default service rates (if applicable) in each billing cycle. Energy that flows from the customer to the distribution system will be recorded and either paid or credited at the average hourly Independent System Operator New England ('ISO-NE') clearing price from the prior calendar month. The only netting that takes places is internal to the meter at times when there is simultaneous consumption by the customer and production by the generator," Unitil said

Since these customers with generators of 60 kW or less are not interval metered, their hourly load data is not reported to ISO-NE for reimbursement, as a larger customer with a generator over 60 kW would be.

"Because of this, Unitil has clarified its Default Service tariff language to show that the recovery of costs directly related to the credits paid to these customers is recoverable through the Default Service reconciliation process," Unitil said.

"The electricity exported by the on-site generation facilities to Unitil's distribution system offsets purchases that would have otherwise been made from its Default Service provider(s) and therefore Unitil believes these costs should be recovered through the Default Service reconciliation mechanism," Unitil said.

For those customers with on-site generating facilities larger than 60 kW, the Company will continue its practice of installing bidirectional interval meters and telemetering equipment so that hourly load data of kWh exported can be reported to, and reimbursed by, ISO-NE at the hourly clearing prices.

"At such time (if applicable) as these larger customers return to net metering due to expansion of the 1% cap, they would already have the required metering in place to receive service under Class II or III net metering and any credits provided by ISO-NE would then be credited to the Net Metering Recovery Surcharge reconciliation model rather than to the customer at that time," Unitil said

Unitil had sought a July 1, 2012 effective date for its tariff changes, but the DPU has suspended the tariff changes for further investigation.