Section 362-H:2 - Purchased Power Agreements To retain and provide for generator fuel diversity, each electric distribution company that is subject to the commission's approval regarding procurement of default service shall offer to purchase the net energy output of any eligible facility located in its service territory in accordance with the following:
I.(a) Prior to each of its next 6 sequential solicitations of its default service supply after the effective date of this chapter, each such electric distribution company shall solicit proposals, in one solicitation or multiple solicitations, from eligible facilities. The electric distribution company's solicitation to eligible facilities shall inform eligible facilities of the opportunity to submit a proposal to enter into a power purchase agreement with the electric distribution company under which the electric distribution company would purchase an amount of energy from the eligible facility for a period that is coterminous with the time period used in the default service supply solicitation. The solicitation shall provide that the electric distribution company's purchases of energy from the eligible facility shall be priced at the adjusted energy rate derived from the default service rates approved by the commission in each applicable default service supply solicitation and resulting rates proceeding.(b) The solicitation shall also inform the eligible facility that:(1) the electric distribution company's purchase from the eligible facility shall be at the eligible facility's interconnection point with the electric distribution company;(2) the purchase shall be from the eligible facility's net electrical output and not from the output of another unit; and(3) the electric distribution company's purchase would be for 100 percent of the eligible facility's net electrical output.II. Each eligible facility's proposal in response to such solicitation shall provide a nonbinding proposed schedule of hourly net output amounts during the term stated over a mutually agreeable period, whether daily, monthly, or over the term used in the default service supply solicitation for the applicable default energy rate and such other information as needed for the eligible facility to submit and the electric distribution company to evaluate the proposal.III. With each eligible facility solicitation, the electric distribution company shall select all proposals from eligible facilities that conform to the requirements of this section. The electric distribution company shall submit all eligible facility agreements to the commission as part of its submission for periodic approval of its residential electric customer default service supply solicitation.IV. All such eligible facility agreements shall be subject to review by the commission for conformity with this chapter in the same proceeding in which it undertakes the review of the electric distribution company's periodic default service solicitation and resulting rates.V. The electric distribution company shall recover the difference between its energy purchase costs and the market energy clearing price through a nonbypassable delivery services charge applicable to all customers in the utility's service territory. The nonbypassable charge may include recovery of reasonable costs incurred by electric distribution companies pursuant to this section. The recovery of the nonbypassable charge shall be allocated among Eversource's customer classes using the allocation percentages approved by the commission in its docket DE 14-238 order 25,920 approving the 2015 Public Service Company of New Hampshire Restructuring and Rate Stabilization Agreement. In the first filing proceeding at the commission under this chapter applicable to each other electric distribution company, the commission shall determine and apply an allocation based on the foregoing allocations for any other electric distribution company subject to this chapter, but reasonably adjusted to account for differing customer classes if any from those of Eversource.VI. The public utilities commission shall ensure the provisions of RSA 485-:5I and RSA 485-:6I, to the extent those provisions are completed, prior to approving power purchase agreements for offshore wind energy resources from the Gulf of Maine. The applicant shall fund the studies required in RSA 485-:5I and RSA 485-:6I and such expenses shall be a recoverable expense.Amended by 2022 , 130: 1, eff. 7/26/2022.Added by 2018 , 379: 2, eff. 9/13/2018.