New Jersey Board of Public Utilities releases straw proposal for transition to new solar program
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) staff issued Wednesday a straw proposal to assist in the transition from the current Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Program to a new system.
The Clean Energy Act, which Gov. Phil Murphy signed in May, required NJBPU to adopt new rules and regulations and close the SREC program to new applications when 5.1 percent of the electricity sold in New Jersey by each electric power supplier and each basic generation provider comes from solar electric power generators.
“New Jersey’s solar program has been a great success story,” NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso said. “Just recently we surpassed 100,000 solar installations, placing us in the nation’s top ten for home and business solar installations. It is our goal to create a new system that allows solar to thrive while at the same time protecting New Jersey ratepayers.”
In the straw proposal, the board released a series of stakeholder questions and invited interested parties to provide input on the transition and SREC Successor Program. The public stakeholder process will take place in the first half of 2019.
On Dec. 18, the Board adopted a rule initiating the process of phasing out the current SREC program and developing a new system that will build upon the state’s current solar process.
