In its annual flurry of end-of-year legislating last week, the Ohio House sent the Senate a bill on community energy facilities Wednesday.
House Bill 303 establishes the Community Energy Pilot Program, allowing for as many as 1,500 megawatts of small-scale facilities statewide, which could range from renewable facilities, like wind and solar, to fossil fuel combustion, like of natural gas.
The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio would regulate the community energy facilities, but only the legislature could bring the program beyond the prescribed 1,500 megawatts.
HB 303 is backed by more than a dozen solar and conservation advocates. Edison Electric Institute and American Electric Power have testified against it.
Under community energy facilities, local residents and businesses buy into a nearby generation project and then get a credit on their electric bill monthly.
House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said it took a few tries to get to this version of HB 303, in part because of concerns about showing preference and potentially subsidizing one kind of energy generation. This latest version avoids that, he said.
“These are not going to be nuclear power plants, but I think they will be substantial generation,” Huffman told reporters Wednesday, adding they may benefit rural areas most.
Gov. Mike DeWine signed an omnibus energy bill in May that lawmakers and lobbyists said would prompt new energy generation and otherwise overhaul the system as power-hungry consumers, like data centers, put increasing pressure on the grid statewide.
The new law eliminated numerous direct subsidies for generators—including controversial ones to two coal-fired power plants and some solar farms. An earlier version of the law included the Community Energy Pilot Program, but that got taken out.
Democratic House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn said the legislature has a lot more it needs to do on the energy front.
“It’s a great tool that we should continue to work on and there’s a lot more we can do,” Isaacsohn told reporters Wednesday. “It’s a both-and.”
Eight GOP lawmakers voted against the bill on the floor, which heads to the Senate for consideration.
