The Commission has recently collected information from the qualifying utilities concerning the participation of “budget-billing” customers in the Community Solar Program, in Commission Docket No. 22-00020-UT. The three utilities confirmed that their budget-billing customers are able to participate as subscribers in the Program, and all of them have budget-billing customers currently participating.
It appears, however, that there is not a uniform method of applying Community Solar Bill Credits to budget-billing subscribers’ bills. The Community Solar Act requires that each qualifying utility “apply community solar bill credits to subscriber bills within one billing cycle following the cycle during which the energy was generated by the community solar facility.” NMSA 1978, § 62-16B-6(A)(2). Thus, the entire amount of a budget-billing subscriber’s credit from energy generation in one month must be fully credited against the customer’s charges on the following month’s bill. To the extent that the credit exceeds such charges, the excess credit must be carried over “to the subscriber’s next monthly bill unless and until the subscriber cancels service with the qualifying utility . . ..” NMSA 1978, § 62-16B-6(A)(4).
Please contact the Program Administrator at [email protected] or 877-794-0109 with any questions.
