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As Introduced
136th
General Assembly
Regular
Session
S. B. No. 383
2025-2026
Senators Weinstein, Blessing
To
amend section 4928.01 and to enact sections 4928.74, 4928.741, and
4928.742 of the Revised Code
regarding
portable solar generation devices.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF OHIO:
Section
1.
That
section 4928.01 be amended and sections 4928.74, 4928.741, and
4928.742 of the Revised Code be enacted to read as follows:
Sec.
4928.01.
(A)
As used in this chapter:
(1)
"Ancillary service" means any function necessary to the
provision of electric transmission or distribution service to a
retail customer and includes, but is not limited to, scheduling,
system control, and dispatch services; reactive supply from
generation resources and voltage control service; reactive supply
from transmission resources service; regulation service; frequency
response service; energy imbalance service; operating
reserve-spinning reserve service; operating reserve-supplemental
reserve service; load following; back-up supply service; real-power
loss replacement service; dynamic scheduling; system black start
capability; and network stability service.
(2)
"Billing and collection agent" means a fully independent
agent, not affiliated with or otherwise controlled by an electric
utility, electric services company, electric cooperative, or
governmental aggregator subject to certification under section
4928.08 of the Revised Code, to the extent that the agent is under
contract with such utility, company, cooperative, or aggregator
solely to provide billing and collection for retail electric service
on behalf of the utility company, cooperative, or aggregator.
(3)
"Certified territory" means the certified territory
established for an electric supplier under sections 4933.81 to
4933.90 of the Revised Code.
(4)
"Competitive retail electric service" means a component of
retail electric service that is competitive as provided under
division (B) of this section.
(5)
"Electric cooperative" means a not-for-profit electric
light company that both is or has been financed in whole or in part
under the "Rural Electrification Act of 1936," 49 Stat.
1363, 7 U.S.C. 901, and owns or operates facilities in this state to
generate, transmit, or distribute electricity, or a not-for-profit
successor of such company.
(6)
"Electric distribution utility" means an electric utility
that supplies at least retail electric distribution service and does
not own or operate an electric generating facility.
(7)
"Electric light company" has the same meaning as in section
4905.03 of the Revised Code and includes an electric services
company.
(8)
"Electric load center" has the same meaning as in section
4933.81 of the Revised Code.
(9)
"Electric services company" means an electric light company
that is engaged on a for-profit or not-for-profit basis in the
business of supplying or arranging for the supply of only a
competitive retail electric service in this state. "Electric
services company" includes a power marketer, power broker,
aggregator, or independent power producer but excludes an electric
cooperative, municipal electric utility, governmental aggregator, or
billing and collection agent.
(10)
"Electric supplier" has the same meaning as in section
4933.81 of the Revised Code.
(11)
"Electric utility" means an electric light company that has
a certified territory and is engaged on a for-profit basis in the
business of supplying at least a noncompetitive retail electric
service in this state. "Electric utility" excludes a
municipal electric utility or a billing and collection agent.
(12)
"Firm electric service" means electric service other than
nonfirm electric service.
(13)
"Governmental aggregator" means a legislative authority of
a municipal corporation, a board of township trustees, or a board of
county commissioners acting as an aggregator for the provision of a
competitive retail electric service under authority conferred under
section 4928.20 of the Revised Code.
(14)
A person acts "knowingly," regardless of the person's
purpose, when the person is aware that the person's conduct will
probably cause a certain result or will probably be of a certain
nature. A person has knowledge of circumstances when the person is
aware that such circumstances probably exist.
(15)
"Level of funding for low-income customer energy efficiency
programs provided through electric utility rates" means the
level of funds specifically included in an electric utility's rates
on October 5, 1999, pursuant to an order of the public utilities
commission issued under Chapter 4905. or 4909. of the Revised Code
and in effect on October 4, 1999, for the purpose of improving the
energy efficiency of housing for the utility's low-income customers.
The term excludes the level of any such funds committed to a specific
nonprofit organization or organizations pursuant to a stipulation or
contract.
(16)
"Low-income customer assistance programs" means the
percentage of income payment plan program, the home energy assistance
program, the home weatherization assistance program, and the targeted
energy efficiency and weatherization program.
(17)
"Market development period" for an electric utility means
the period of time beginning on the starting date of competitive
retail electric service and ending on the applicable date for that
utility as specified in section 4928.40 of the Revised Code,
irrespective of whether the utility applies to receive transition
revenues under this chapter.
(18)
"Market power" means the ability to impose on customers a
sustained price for a product or service above the price that would
prevail in a competitive market.
(19)
"Mercantile customer" means a commercial or industrial
customer if the electricity consumed is for nonresidential use and
the customer consumes more than seven hundred thousand kilowatt hours
per year or is part of a national account involving multiple
facilities in one or more states.
(20)
"Municipal electric utility" means a municipal corporation
that owns or operates facilities to generate, transmit, or distribute
electricity.
(21)
"Noncompetitive retail electric service" means a component
of retail electric service that is noncompetitive as provided under
division (B) of this section.
(22)
"Nonfirm electric service" means electric service provided
pursuant to a schedule filed under section 4905.30 of the Revised
Code or pursuant to an arrangement under section 4905.31 of the
Revised Code, which schedule or arrangement includes conditions that
may require the customer to curtail or interrupt electric usage
during nonemergency circumstances upon notification by an electric
utility.
(23)
"Percentage of income payment plan arrears" means funds
eligible for collection through the percentage of income payment plan
rider, but uncollected as of July 1, 2000.
(24)
"Person" has the same meaning as in section 1.59 of the
Revised Code.
(25)
"Advanced energy project" means any technologies, products,
activities, or management practices or strategies that facilitate the
generation or use of electricity or energy and that reduce or support
the reduction of energy consumption or support the production of
clean, renewable energy for industrial, distribution, commercial,
institutional, governmental, research, not-for-profit, or residential
energy users, including, but not limited to, advanced energy
resources and renewable energy resources. "Advanced energy
project" also includes any project described in division (A),
(B), or (C) of section 4928.621 of the Revised Code.
(26)
"Regulatory assets" means the unamortized net regulatory
assets that are capitalized or deferred on the regulatory books of
the electric utility, pursuant to an order or practice of the public
utilities commission or pursuant to generally accepted accounting
principles as a result of a prior commission rate-making decision,
and that would otherwise have been charged to expense as incurred or
would not have been capitalized or otherwise deferred for future
regulatory consideration absent commission action. "Regulatory
assets" includes, but is not limited to, all deferred
demand-side management costs; all deferred percentage of income
payment plan arrears; post-in-service capitalized charges and assets
recognized in connection with statement of financial accounting
standards no. 109 (receivables from customers for income taxes);
future nuclear decommissioning costs and fuel disposal costs as those
costs have been determined by the commission in the electric
utility's most recent rate or accounting application proceeding
addressing such costs; the undepreciated costs of safety and
radiation control equipment on nuclear generating plants owned or
leased by an electric utility; and fuel costs currently deferred
pursuant to the terms of one or more settlement agreements approved
by the commission.
(27)
"Retail electric service" means any service involved in
supplying or arranging for the supply of electricity to ultimate
consumers in this state, from the point of generation to the point of
consumption. For the purposes of this chapter, retail electric
service includes one or more of the following "service
components": generation service, aggregation service, power
marketing service, power brokerage service, transmission service,
distribution service, ancillary service, metering service, and
billing and collection service.
(28)
"Starting date of competitive retail electric service"
means January 1, 2001.
(29)
"Customer-generator" means a user of a net metering system.
(30)
"Net metering" means measuring the difference in an
applicable billing period between the electricity supplied by an
electric service provider and the electricity generated by a
customer-generator that is fed back to the electric service provider.
(31)
"Net metering system" means a facility for the production
of electrical energy that does all of the following:
(a)
Uses as its fuel either solar, wind, biomass, landfill gas, or
hydropower, or uses a microturbine or a fuel cell;
(b)
Is located on a customer-generator's premises;
(c)
Operates in parallel with the electric utility's transmission and
distribution facilities;
(d)
Is intended primarily to offset part or all of the
customer-generator's requirements for electricity. For an industrial
customer-generator with a net metering system that has a capacity of
less than twenty megawatts and uses wind as energy, this means the
net metering system was sized so as to not exceed one hundred per
cent of the customer-generator's annual requirements for electric
energy at the time of interconnection.
"Net
metering system" does not include a portable solar generation
device.
(32)
"Self-generator" means an entity in this state that owns or
hosts on property the entity controls an electric generation facility
that produces electricity primarily for the owner's consumption and
that may provide any such excess electricity to another entity, and
that meets all of the following:
(a)
The facility is installed or operated by the owner or by a third
party under a contract, including a lease, purchase power agreement,
or other service contract.
(b)
The facility connects directly to the owner's side of the electric
meter.
(c)
The facility delivers electricity to the owner's side of the electric
meter without the use of an electric distribution utility's or
electric cooperative's distribution system or transmission system.
(33)
"Rate plan" means the standard service offer in effect on
the effective date of the amendment of this section by S.B. 221 of
the 127th general assembly, July 31, 2008.
(34)
"Advanced energy resource" means any of the following:
(a)
Any method or any modification or replacement of any property,
process, device, structure, or equipment that increases the
generation output of an electric generating facility to the extent
such efficiency is achieved without additional carbon dioxide
emissions by that facility;
(b)
Any distributed generation system consisting of customer cogeneration
technology;
(c)
Clean coal technology that includes a carbon-based product that is
chemically altered before combustion to demonstrate a reduction, as
expressed as ash, in emissions of nitrous oxide, mercury, arsenic,
chlorine, sulfur dioxide, or sulfur trioxide in accordance with the
American society of testing and materials standard D1757A or a
reduction of metal oxide emissions in accordance with standard D5142
of that society, or clean coal technology that includes the design
capability to control or prevent the emission of carbon dioxide,
which design capability the commission shall adopt by rule and shall
be based on economically feasible best available technology or, in
the absence of a determined best available technology, shall be of
the highest level of economically feasible design capability for
which there exists generally accepted scientific opinion;
(d)
Advanced nuclear energy technology consisting of generation III
technology as defined by the nuclear regulatory commission; other,
later technology; or significant improvements to existing facilities;
(e)
Any fuel cell used in the generation of electricity, including, but
not limited to, a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid
fuel cell, molten carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell;
(f)
Advanced solid waste or construction and demolition debris conversion
technology, including, but not limited to, advanced stoker
technology, and advanced fluidized bed gasification technology, that
results in measurable greenhouse gas emissions reductions as
calculated pursuant to the United States environmental protection
agency's waste reduction model (WARM);
(g)
Demand-side management and any energy efficiency improvement;
(h)
Any new, retrofitted, refueled, or repowered generating facility
located in Ohio, including a simple or combined-cycle natural gas
generating facility or a generating facility that uses biomass, coal,
modular nuclear, or any other fuel as its input;
(i)
Any uprated capacity of an existing electric generating facility if
the uprated capacity results from the deployment of advanced
technology.
"Advanced
energy resource" does not include a waste energy recovery system
that is, or has been, included in an energy efficiency program of an
electric distribution utility pursuant to requirements under section
4928.66 of the Revised Code.
(35)
"Air contaminant source" has the same meaning as in section
3704.01 of the Revised Code.
(36)
"Cogeneration technology" means technology that produces
electricity and useful thermal output simultaneously.
(37)(a)
"Renewable energy resource" means any of the following:
(i)
Solar photovoltaic or solar thermal energy;
(ii)
Wind energy;
(iii)
Power produced by a hydroelectric facility;
(iv)
Power produced by a small hydroelectric facility, which is a facility
that operates, or is rated to operate, at an aggregate capacity of
less than six megawatts;
(v)
Power produced by a run-of-the-river hydroelectric facility placed in
service on or after January 1, 1980, that is located within this
state, relies upon the Ohio river, and operates, or is rated to
operate, at an aggregate capacity of forty or more megawatts;
(vi)
Geothermal energy;
(vii)
Fuel derived from solid wastes, as defined in section 3734.01 of the
Revised Code, through fractionation, biological decomposition, or
other process that does not principally involve combustion;
(viii)
Biomass energy;
(ix)
Energy produced by cogeneration technology that is placed into
service on or before December 31, 2015, and for which more than
ninety per cent of the total annual energy input is from combustion
of a waste or byproduct gas from an air contaminant source in this
state, which source has been in operation since on or before January
1, 1985, provided that the cogeneration technology is a part of a
facility located in a county having a population of more than three
hundred sixty-five thousand but less than three hundred seventy
thousand according to the most recent federal decennial census;
(x)
Biologically derived methane gas;
(xi)
Heat captured from a generator of electricity, boiler, or heat
exchanger fueled by biologically derived methane gas;
(xii)
Energy derived from nontreated by-products of the pulping process or
wood manufacturing process, including bark, wood chips, sawdust, and
lignin in spent pulping liquors.
"Renewable
energy resource" includes, but is not limited to, any fuel cell
used in the generation of electricity, including, but not limited to,
a proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell,
molten carbonate fuel cell, or solid oxide fuel cell; a linear
generator; wind turbine located in the state's territorial waters of
Lake Erie; methane gas emitted from an abandoned or active coal mine;
waste energy recovery system placed into service or retrofitted on or
after the effective date of the amendment of this section by S.B. 315
of the 129th general assembly, September 10, 2012, except that a
waste energy recovery system described in division (A)(38)(b) of this
section may be included only if it was placed into service between
January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2004; storage facility that will
promote the better utilization of a renewable energy resource; or
distributed generation system used by a customer to generate
electricity from any such energy.
"Renewable
energy resource" does not include a waste energy recovery system
that is, or was, on or after January 1, 2012, included in an energy
efficiency program of an electric distribution utility pursuant to
requirements under section 4928.66 of the Revised Code.
(b)
As used in division (A)(37) of this section, "hydroelectric
facility" means a hydroelectric generating facility that is
located at a dam on a river, or on any water discharged to a river,
that is within or bordering this state or within or bordering an
adjoining state and meets all of the following standards:
(i)
The facility provides for river flows that are not detrimental for
fish, wildlife, and water quality, including seasonal flow
fluctuations as defined by the applicable licensing agency for the
facility.
(ii)
The facility demonstrates that it complies with the water quality
standards of this state, which compliance may consist of
certification under Section 401 of the "Clean Water Act of
1977," 91 Stat. 1598, 1599, 33 U.S.C. 1341, and demonstrates
that it has not contributed to a finding by this state that the river
has impaired water quality under Section 303(d) of the "Clean
Water Act of 1977," 114 Stat. 870, 33 U.S.C. 1313.
(iii)
The facility complies with mandatory prescriptions regarding fish
passage as required by the federal energy regulatory commission
license issued for the project, regarding fish protection for
riverine, anadromous, and catadromous fish.
(iv)
The facility complies with the recommendations of the Ohio
environmental protection agency and with the terms of its federal
energy regulatory commission license regarding watershed protection,
mitigation, or enhancement, to the extent of each agency's respective
jurisdiction over the facility.
(v)
The facility complies with provisions of the "Endangered Species
Act of 1973," 87 Stat. 884, 16 U.S.C. 1531 to 1544, as amended.
(vi)
The facility does not harm cultural resources of the area. This can
be shown through compliance with the terms of its federal energy
regulatory commission license or, if the facility is not regulated by
that commission, through development of a plan approved by the Ohio
historic preservation office, to the extent it has jurisdiction over
the facility.
(vii)
The facility complies with the terms of its federal energy regulatory
commission license or exemption that are related to recreational
access, accommodation, and facilities or, if the facility is not
regulated by that commission, the facility complies with similar
requirements as are recommended by resource agencies, to the extent
they have jurisdiction over the facility; and the facility provides
access to water to the public without fee or charge.
(viii)
The facility is not recommended for removal by any federal agency or
agency of any state, to the extent the particular agency has
jurisdiction over the facility.
(c)
The standards in divisions (A)(37)(b)(i) to (viii) of this section do
not apply to a small hydroelectric facility under division
(A)(37)(a)(iv) of this section.
(38)
"Waste energy recovery system" means any of the following:
(a)
A facility that generates electricity through the conversion of
energy from either of the following:
(i)
Exhaust heat from engines or manufacturing, industrial, commercial,
or institutional sites, except for exhaust heat from a facility whose
primary purpose is the generation of electricity;
(ii)
Reduction of pressure in gas pipelines before gas is distributed
through the pipeline, provided that the conversion of energy to
electricity is achieved without using additional fossil fuels.
(b)
A facility at a state institution of higher education as defined in
section 3345.011 of the Revised Code that recovers waste heat from
electricity-producing engines or combustion turbines and that
simultaneously uses the recovered heat to produce steam, provided
that the facility was placed into service between January 1, 2002,
and December 31, 2004;
(c)
A facility that produces steam from recovered waste heat from a
manufacturing process and uses that steam, or transfers that steam to
another facility, to provide heat to another manufacturing process or
to generate electricity.
(39)
"Smart grid" means capital improvements to an electric
distribution utility's distribution infrastructure that improve
reliability, efficiency, resiliency, or reduce energy demand or use,
including, but not limited to, advanced metering and automation of
system functions.
(40)
"Combined heat and power system" means the coproduction of
electricity and useful thermal energy from the same fuel source
designed to achieve thermal-efficiency levels of at least sixty per
cent, with at least twenty per cent of the system's total useful
energy in the form of thermal energy.
(41)(a)
"Green energy" means any energy generated by using an
energy resource that does one or more of the following:
(i)
Releases reduced air pollutants, thereby reducing cumulative air
emissions;
(ii)
Is more sustainable and reliable relative to some fossil fuels.
(b)
"Green energy" includes energy generated using the
following:
(i)
Natural gas as a resource;
(ii)
Nuclear reaction.
(42)
"Energy storage" means electrical generation and storage
performed by a distributed energy system connected battery.
(43)
"Linear generator" means an integrated system consisting of
oscillators, cylinders, electricity conversion equipment, and
associated balance of plant components that meet the following
criteria:
(a)
Converts the linear motion of oscillators directly into electricity
without the use of a flame or spark;
(b)
Is dispatchable with the ability to vary power output across all
loads;
(c)
Can operate on multiple fuel types including renewable fuels such as
hydrogen, ammonia, and biogas.
(44)
"Portable solar generation device" means a moveable
photovoltaic electric generation device that satisfies all of the
following:
(a)
Has a maximum power output of not more than one thousand two hundred
watts;
(b)
Is designed to be connected to a building's electrical system through
a standard one hundred twenty volt alternating current outlet;
(c)
Is intended primarily to offset part of the customer's electricity
consumption;
(d)
Is certified by underwriters laboratories or an equivalent nationally
recognized testing laboratory.
(B)
For the purposes of this chapter, a retail electric service component
shall be deemed a competitive retail electric service if the service
component is competitive pursuant to a declaration by a provision of
the Revised Code or pursuant to an order of the public utilities
commission authorized under division (A) of section 4928.04 of the
Revised Code. Otherwise, the service component shall be deemed a
noncompetitive retail electric service.
Sec.
4928.74.
A
portable solar generation device is exempt from any interconnection
requirement and any requirement to enter into an interconnection
agreement with an electric utility imposed pursuant to Chapter 4928.
of the Revised Code.
Sec.
4928.741.
No
electric utility shall require a customer using a portable solar
generation device to do any of the following:
(A)
Obtain the utility's approval before installing or using the device;
(B)
Pay any fee or charge related to the device or for feeding small
amounts of electricity back into the utility grid;
(C)
Install any additional controls or equipment beyond what is
integrated into the device.
Sec.
4928.742.
The
public utilities commission shall adopt rules to implement sections
4928.74 and 4928.741 of the Revised Code.
Section
2.
That
existing section 4928.01 of the Revised Code is hereby repealed.