SB 763 West Virginia Senate · 2025 Regular Session

Creating Public Electrical Savings Act

SB 763, the "Creating Public Electrical Savings Act," establishes rules for solar power agreements between utility customers and third-party providers. It directly affects residential, commercial, and industrial customers installing solar systems, as well as public entities (like schools or government buildings) entering into power purchase agreements (PPAs) for onsite solar. Key provisions include limiting total PPAs to 3% of a utility’s peak demand, setting size caps (50kW for homes, 1,000kW for businesses), requiring 48-hour backup power during outages, and mandating that public entity PPAs offer rates cheaper than the utility’s standard rate for the full agreement term. The bill also requires utilities to notify customers if caps are reached within 30 days or allow agreements to proceed if they don’t respond.

Issues: ✓ Energy

Bill status died 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Mar 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Mar 17, 2025 Last action Mar 28, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced Version → Committee Substitute · 8 edits

MODERATE

The bill was revised from an introduced version to a committee substitute version, incorporating significant substantive changes to the Public Electrical Savings Act. The committee version adds new jurisdictional authority for the Public Service Commission, clarifies exemptions for solar facilities, and introduces new requirements for power purchase agreements (PPAs) including third-party meter inspections and storage mandates. The text also includes numerous formatting corrections and reorganizes the statutory language for clarity.

Scope change

The bill's scope was expanded to include additional jurisdictional powers for the Public Service Commission over political subdivisions and electric generating facilities, while clarifying exemptions for certain solar and internet service providers.

REQUIREMENT

Added requirement that public entities entering into PPAs must include provisions for on-site power storage capable of providing backup electricity for at least 48 hours during utility outages.

Modified PPA requirements to clarify that agreements must guarantee customers a lower cost per kilowatt-hour than public utilities, with provisions for contract renewal.

ENFORCEMENT

Added requirement that public utilities must engage a third party to inspect meters in PPA agreements at onset and every three years, reporting findings to customers.

Added authority for the commission to subpoena witnesses, take testimony, and administer oaths in proceedings related to political subdivision water and sewer services.

DEFINITION

Modified the definition of exempt wholesale generators to clarify siting certificate requirements and jurisdictional exemptions for facilities constructed before or after July 1, 2003.

Added new definitions for 'Internet protocol-enabled service' and 'Voice-over internet protocol service' to explicitly exclude these from the commission's jurisdiction.

SCOPE

Added new jurisdictional provisions for the Public Service Commission over political subdivisions with water/sewer services, including authority to investigate disputes and resolve complaints within specific timeframes.

TECHNICAL

Removed formatting artifacts and navigation elements from the introduced version that were not part of the actual legislative text.

Floor votes

How they voted

No floor votes recorded yet.

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Amendments

Mar 28, 2025

Committee

Referred to Rules on 3rd reading

upper

Mar 27, 2025

Introduced

Floor amendments reported

upper

Mar 25, 2025

Upper · Passed

Committee substitute reported

upper

Mar 17, 2025

Introduced

Introduced in Senate

upper

1 primary · 3 co-sponsors