An act relating to defining electricity generating facilities

Added a detailed definition of 'plant' in 30 V.S.A. 8002(18) that treats groups of facilities (like wind turbines) as one plant if they share common infrastructure, but carves out exceptions for individual net metering on separate parcels with separate meters and customers, multi-owner net metering in common interest communities, and colocation where a net-metering facility and a Standard Offer Program facility are on different parcels and each stays under its program capacity cap.

Added definitions for 'common interest community,' 'contiguous' (sharing a boundary or separated only by a road, path, railway, stream, or river), 'electricity-generating technology,' and 'point of interconnection.'

Added a legislative intent section stating the amendments are substantive, create new rights and liabilities, and apply only to applications filed on or after the July 1, 2026 effective date. This prevents the new plant definition from retroactively affecting pending applications.

Added a report requirement (Sec. 2a) due January 15, 2027, for the Commissioner of Public Service to report on primary agricultural soils and forest clearing associated with solar energy generation projects. The Senate version narrows the scope to the last two years and projects of 1 MW or greater, and adds questions about cumulative impacts on Highest Priority Landscapes and State-Significant natural communities.

Created a new Electric Generation and Energy Storage Facility Decommissioning Fund (30 V.S.A. 248e) administered by the PUC Chair. The fund is financed by decommissioning surety fees collected from certificate holders, capped at the average cumulative cost of obtaining financial instruments over a facility's life. Disbursements are authorized to pay third parties who complete decommissioning when the certificate holder is unknown, uncontactable, unwilling, or non-compliant; to investigate ownership; and to return portions of fees to compliant certificate holders upon satisfactory completion.

Amended 30 V.S.A. 20(a)(1) to authorize the Commission or Department to retain legal counsel, expert witnesses, consultants, and temporary employees specifically to investigate, review, plan, oversee, or carry out decommissioning and site restoration required by a certificate of public good.

Added a report requirement (Sec. 5) due February 15, 2027, for the PUC to report to legislative committees on the formula established for decommissioning surety fees.

Added standard bill front matter: sponsor names (Representatives Campbell and James), committee referral line, subject description, and a statement of purpose explaining the bill clarifies when the Public Utility Commission considers multiple energy-generating facilities to be a single facility.

Exception C in the first copy of the statutory text within the official version is reworded from 'colocation of facilities other than net-metering program or Standard Offer Program facilities' to 'colocation of renewable energy program facilities' and adds reference to Renewable Energy Standard Tier II facilities. However, a second copy of the same section later in the official document retains the original wording, suggesting this may be a production duplication error rather than a true amendment.

Page count increased from 3 to 7 due to added front matter and apparent duplication of the statutory text within the official version.

Exception (C) title changed from 'colocation of renewable energy program facilities' to 'colocation of facilities other than net-metering program or Standard Offer Program facilities,' narrowing which facility types qualify for the exception and removing reference to 'other Renewable Energy Standard Tier II facilities.'

The conditions in Exception (C) were restructured: having separate points of interconnection was elevated from a sub-condition to the primary requirement, and the old combined condition about capacity caps and co-siting was split into two distinct conditions - (i) net-metering and Standard Offer Program facilities must not be sited on the same parcel or contiguous parcels, and (ii) the statutory capacity cap for either program must not be exceeded on the same parcel or contiguous parcels.