Rhode Island Regulators Seek to Update Distributed Generation Rules to Boost Renewable Energy Adoption

The Rhode Island Distributed-Generation Board submitted its recommendations for the 2020 Renewable Energy Growth Program Year to the Public Utilities Commission on Oct. 23, with proposed changes to classes, tariff term lengths, ceiling prices and the state allocation plan affecting mostly solar and wind generation.

Regarding classes, the board proposes to combine the small and large wind energy groups into a single class starting in program year 2020. On tariff length, it suggests a change to the small solar I renewable energy class from 20 to 15 years, while keeping all other classes at their current length, 20 years.

Finally, regarding ceiling prices, the regulator proposes changes to all renewable energy categories, with the biggest change being small solar I, going from 24.95 cents per kilowatt-hour to 29.65. In the allocation plan, the biggest proposed shift is once again for the small scale solar class, which sees its share go down from about 12 megawatts to nearly 7 megawatts. The regulator also mentions a solar carport adder, which it developed in collaboration with National Grid to provide a $0.06/kWh incentive-payment to qualifying projects.

Rhode Island currently has a renewable energy standard target of 38.5 percent by 2035. Almost 90 percent of the state’s net generation comes from natural gas, with only 6 percent coming from solar and wind.