HB1948 – Ensuring that methods for calculating a utility’s load under the Energy Independence Act don’t discourage voluntary investments in renewables.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Ybarra (R; 13th District; Quincy) (Co-Sponsor Fitzgibbon, D)
Current status – Had a hearing in the House Committee on Environment & Energy January 8th, and passed out of committee January 16th. Referred to Rules.
Next step would be – Action by the Rules Committee.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
Under the bill, when retail customers chose to participate in a program in which a utility covered by the Energy Independence Act purchased power for delivery to its system from sources that the Act counted toward meeting its requirements for increased use of renewables, and then retired the associated renewable energy credits on behalf of the customer, that power would not count as part of the utility’s load. It also wouldn’t count toward meeting its requirements.

(If those voluntary purchases by customers are counted as part of the utility’s load they raise its requirements, which are defined as a percentage of its load, but if the customer is claiming the credit for the renewable characteristics of the purchases, they don’t contribute to meeting that increase in the utility’s requirements. The bill would avoid that problem by excluding this power from the Act’s calculations.)