SB5493 – Reopens the Renewable Energy System Incentive Program, but only for residential systems.
Prime Sponsor – Senator Jeff Wilson (R; 19th District; Southwest Washington)
Current status – Referred to Environment, Energy & Technology.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

Summary –
The Renewable Energy System Incentive Program established by ESSB 5729 in 2017 for residential and commercial renewable energy projects and for community solar projects reached its $100 million cap early in 2019, though the bill would have allowed new enrollments for another two and a half years if the funding had not been used up. This bill would reopen the program for residential systems only.

It would place a new $100 million cap on the program as a whole. Incentives would still be distributed to customers by participating utilities, with funding for those provided to each utilitiy as credits against its taxes, up to an annual limit of one and one-half percent of its power sales in 2014 or $250,000, whichever was greater. The reopened program would phase down the incentives in the same way, going from $0.16/kWh for systems certified in 2022 down to $0.10/kWh in 2025, and stepping the Made in Washington bonus from $0.05/kWh down to $0.02/kWh. Annual payments for a residential system would still be limited to $5,000. There would still be a one-time application fee of $125.

Details –
Utility participation in the program is still voluntary. Puget Sound Energy submitted a letter withdrawing from it in December 2019. (Apparently, PSE and some other utilities withdrew from the program because the law required the Energy Program to keep accepting applications after the money for funding them ran out, confusing people and supporting some misleading sales pitches by some bad actors; withdrawing from the program shut down applications in a utility’s service territory.) I don’t know if they’ll renew their participation now or not, though it would seem likely. A comment on the WSU Energy Program’s web page about its administration of the  program does make it sound as if residential projects on PSE’s waiting list at that point might well be eligible for a renewed program.

The bill drops the requirements for a report on the program to the Legislature.