Introduced Version
SENATE BILL No. 541
_____
DIGEST OF INTRODUCED BILL
Citations Affected: IC 8-1-44.
Synopsis: Community solar facilities. Requires the Indiana utility
regulatory commission (commission) to adopt rules governing
community solar facilities not later than July 1, 2026. Provides that, not
later than 180 days after adoption of the rules, an electricity provider
shall begin: (1) allowing interconnection of the electricity provider's
facilities with community solar facilities in which at least three of the
electricity provider's customers have entered into a subscription; and
(2) crediting the electricity provider's subscribing customers for the
amount of electricity from the community solar facility for which the
customer subscribes. Requires the commission to: (1) establish an
interconnection working group composed of representatives of
electricity suppliers and other stakeholders with respect to electric
utility service; and (2) implement the working group's
recommendations regarding creation, revision, or elimination of
policies, processes, tariffs, rules, or standards relating to the
interconnection of community solar facilities and electricity suppliers
as necessary for transparent, accurate, and efficient implementation of
community solar facilities.
Effective: July 1, 2025.
Spencer
January 16, 2025, read first time and referred to Committee on Utilities.
2025 IN 541—LS 6512/DI 119 Introduced
First Regular Session of the 124th General Assembly (2025)
PRINTING CODE. Amendments: Whenever an existing statute (or a section of the Indiana
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Conflict reconciliation: Text in a statute in this style type or this style type reconciles conflicts
between statutes enacted by the 2024 Regular Session of the General Assembly.
SENATE BILL No. 541
A BILL FOR AN ACT to amend the Indiana Code concerning
utilities.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana:
1 SECTION 1. IC 8-1-44 IS ADDED TO THE INDIANA CODE AS
2 A NEW CHAPTER TO READ AS FOLLOWS [EFFECTIVE JULY
3 1, 2025]:
4 Chapter 44. Community Solar Facilities
5 Sec. 1. The definitions in IC 8-1-40 apply throughout this
6 chapter.
7 Sec. 2. As used in this chapter, "community solar facility"
8 means a facility:
9 (1) that generates electricity by means of a photovoltaic
10 device;
11 (2) that is located on a single parcel of land;
12 (3) that is interconnected to the electric distribution grid;
13 (4) in which at least three (3) persons located in the electricity
14 provider service area in which the facility is located have
15 entered into a subscription;
16 (5) in which at least sixty percent (60%) of the generating
17 capacity is allocated to subscriptions of twenty-five (25)
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1 kilowatts or less; and
2 (6) that is designed to offset the energy use of a specified set of
3 subscribers, with no single subscriber having more than a
4 twenty percent (20%) interest in the facility.
5 Sec. 3. (a) As used in this chapter, "community solar facility
6 organization" means an organization whose purpose is to
7 beneficially own and operate a community solar facility for the
8 subscribers to the community solar facility.
9 (b) A community solar facility organization may be a for-profit,
10 nonprofit, cooperative, or governmental entity authorized by
11 Indiana law.
12 Sec. 4. As used in this chapter, "disadvantaged business
13 enterprise" has the meaning set forth in IC 5-16-6.5-1.
14 Sec. 5. (a) As used in this chapter, "electricity provider" means
15 an entity providing retail electricity service to customers under
16 IC 8-1-2.
17 (b) The term does not include an entity providing retail electric
18 service under IC 8-1-2.2 or IC 8-1-13.
19 Sec. 6. As used in this chapter, "low or moderate income" means
20 an individual or household income of not more than eighty percent
21 (80%) of the area median income based on United States
22 Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines.
23 Sec. 7. As used in this chapter, "nameplate capacity" has the
24 meaning set forth in 170 IAC 4-4.2-1.
25 Sec. 8. As used in this chapter, "subscribing customer" means
26 a retail customer of an electricity provider that enters into one (1)
27 or more subscriptions with one (1) or more community solar
28 facilities.
29 Sec. 9. As used in this chapter, "subscription" means a contract
30 between a subscriber and a community solar facility organization.
31 Sec. 10. Not later than one hundred eighty (180) days after the
32 commission adopts rules under section 15 of this chapter, an
33 electricity provider shall begin:
34 (1) allowing interconnection with the electricity provider's
35 facilities by community solar facilities; and
36 (2) providing bill credits under section 11 of this chapter to
37 subscribing customers of the electricity provider.
38 Sec. 11. (a) A community solar facility organization that
39 operates a community solar facility that is interconnected with the
40 facilities of an electricity provider shall, not later than the fifteenth
41 day of each month, transmit to the electricity provider a report
42 providing the following information:
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1 (1) An updated list of subscribers to the community solar
2 facility in the immediately preceding month.
3 (2) The proportional output of the community solar facility
4 attributable to the subscription of each subscriber identified
5 under subdivision (1), calculated as follows:
6 (A) If the subscriber subscribed to receive a specified
7 amount of electricity from the community solar facility
8 during the immediately preceding month, the subscriber's
9 subscription amount is the amount of electricity the
10 subscriber subscribed to receive from the community solar
11 facility during the immediately preceding month.
12 (B) If the subscriber subscribed to receive a specified
13 proportion of the community solar facility's generated
14 electricity in the immediately preceding month, the
15 subscriber's subscription amount equals:
16 (i) the proportion of the community solar facility's
17 generated electricity the subscriber subscribed to receive
18 in the immediately preceding month; multiplied by
19 (ii) the amount of electricity generated by the community
20 solar facility in the immediately preceding month.
21 (b) An electricity provider shall provide to a subscribing
22 customer of the electricity provider a credit on the customer's
23 electricity bill for a billing cycle that is equal to:
24 (1) the total subscription amount reported for the customer by
25 the community solar facility organization under subsection
26 (a)(2) for the billing cycle; multiplied by
27 (2) the applicable community solar credit rate established by
28 the commission in rules adopted by the commission under
29 section 15 of this chapter.
30 If the amount of a bill credit provided to a subscribing customer
31 for a billing cycle exceeds the amount of the subscribing customer's
32 bill for that billing cycle, the electricity supplier shall carry over
33 the amount of the excess in subsequent billing cycles until the full
34 amount of the excess has been credited to the subscribing
35 customer.
36 (c) An electricity provider shall, not later than the fifteenth day
37 of each month, electronically report the following information to
38 a community solar facility organization that operates a community
39 solar facility that is interconnected with the electricity provider's
40 facilities:
41 (1) The proportional output of the community solar facility
42 attributable to the subscription of each subscriber to the
2025 IN 541—LS 6512/DI 119 4
1 community solar facility.
2 (2) The bill credit provided to each subscriber to the
3 community solar facility under subsection (b) for the
4 immediately preceding billing cycle.
5 (3) The applicable community solar credit rate established by
6 the commission in rules adopted by the commission under
7 section 15 of this chapter.
8 (d) An electricity provider shall provide bill credits under this
9 section to a subscribing customer of the electricity provider for the
10 life of the community solar facility to which the customer
11 subscribes.
12 Sec. 12. An electricity provider may not change the terms of
13 service of a subscribing customer of the electricity provider on the
14 basis of the subscribing customer's subscription in a community
15 solar facility.
16 Sec. 13. All environmental attributes of a community solar
17 facility, including renewable energy certificates, are property of
18 the owner of the community solar facility.
19 Sec. 14. A community solar facility is eligible for any incentive
20 programs offered to such facilities under applicable state or federal
21 law.
22 Sec. 15. (a) Not later than July 1, 2026, the commission shall
23 adopt rules under IC 4-22-2 necessary for the administration of
24 this chapter.
25 (b) The rules adopted by the commission under this section
26 must:
27 (1) be consistent with the state policy expressed in
28 IC 8-1-2-0.6;
29 (2) establish the solar credit rate or rates to be used for
30 purposes of section 11 of this chapter, which must be
31 calculated to:
32 (A) allow for all classes of retail electric customers to
33 realize tangible economic benefits from subscribing to
34 community solar facilities; and
35 (B) create a viable financial market for community solar
36 development;
37 (3) establish uniform fees, standards, and processes for
38 interconnection that:
39 (A) are nondiscriminatory and not unreasonably
40 burdensome for operators of community solar facilities;
41 and
42 (B) allow an electricity provider to recover reasonable
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1 costs of interconnecting the electricity provider's facilities
2 with a community solar facility;
3 (4) provide for recovery by an electricity provider of
4 reasonable administrative costs associated with the electricity
5 provider's provision of bill credits to the electricity provider's
6 subscribing customers under section 11 of this chapter;
7 (5) include mechanisms to ensure that low or moderate
8 income households are able to realize tangible economic
9 benefits from subscribing to community solar facilities;
10 (6) provide for:
11 (A) transferability of a subscription; and
12 (B) portability of a subscription such that the bill credit of
13 a subscribing customer of an electricity provider under
14 section 11 of this chapter is not affected by the subscribing
15 customer's relocation within the service area of the
16 electricity provider;
17 (7) address whether, and conditions under which, multiple
18 community solar facilities may be co-located on a single
19 parcel;
20 (8) provide that a community solar facility may not have a
21 nameplate capacity greater than five (5) megawatts AC;
22 (9) require a community solar facility organization to submit
23 an annual report to the commission, in a form determined by
24 the commission, that:
25 (A) identifies the ownership, management, and operator
26 of;
27 (B) provides statistical results regarding; and
28 (C) describes the community solar facility organization's
29 future plans for;
30 each community solar facility operated by the community
31 solar facility organization;
32 (10) require implementation by community solar facility
33 organizations of local hiring preferences for disadvantaged
34 business enterprises in a manner that meets or exceeds
35 standards for disadvantaged business enterprise engagement
36 in United States Department of Transportation Special
37 Experimental Project No. 14 (SEP-14) for Federal Highway
38 Administration and Federal Transit Administration
39 contracts; and
40 (11) establish consumer protection standards with regard to
41 subscriptions to community solar facilities.
42 (c) In addition to rules adopted under subsection (b), the
2025 IN 541—LS 6512/DI 119 6
1 commission may adopt any other rules the commission considers
2 appropriate or necessary for the administration of this chapter,
3 including rules regarding the following:
4 (1) The maximum proportion that the total nameplate
5 capacity of all community solar facilities statewide may bear
6 to statewide peak electricity demand, expressed as a
7 percentage of the statewide peak electricity demand.
8 (2) A minimum or maximum proportion of the nameplate
9 capacity of a community solar facility that may be allocated
10 to a specified customer class of electricity providers.
11 (3) A minimum proportion of the nameplate capacity of a
12 community solar facility that may be allocated to low or
13 moderate income households.
14 Sec. 16. Notwithstanding any other law:
15 (1) a community solar facility organization is not a public
16 utility subject to IC 8-1-2 solely as a result of the community
17 solar facility organization's ownership or operation of a
18 community solar facility; and
19 (2) a subscriber is not a public utility subject to IC 8-1-2 solely
20 as a result of the subscriber's subscription in a community
21 solar facility.
22 Sec. 17. (a) As used in this section, "working group" refers to
23 the interconnection working group established under subsection
24 (b).
25 (b) Not later than October 1, 2025, the commission shall
26 establish an interconnection working group composed of:
27 (1) representatives of electricity suppliers; and
28 (2) other stakeholders with respect to electric utility service.
29 (c) The chairman of the commission, or the chairman's designee,
30 serves:
31 (1) as the chair; and
32 (2) as a nonvoting member;
33 of the working group.
34 (d) The working group shall meet at the call of the working
35 group's chair.
36 (e) A majority of the members of the working group constitutes
37 a quorum.
38 (f) A member of the working group who is a member of the
39 general assembly is a nonvoting member of the working group.
40 (g) The affirmative vote of a majority of the voting members of
41 the working group is required for the working group to take action
42 on any measure, including adoption of the report under subsection
2025 IN 541—LS 6512/DI 119 7
1 (m).
2 (h) The commission shall staff and provide oversight for the
3 working group.
4 (i) Except as provided under subsection (l), the expenses of the
5 working group shall be paid from funds appropriated to the
6 commission.
7 (j) A member of the working group who is not a state employee
8 is not entitled to the minimum salary per diem provided by
9 IC 4-10-11-2.1(b). The member is, however, entitled to
10 reimbursement for mileage and traveling expenses as provided
11 under IC 4-13-1-4 and other expenses actually incurred in
12 connection with the member's duties as provided in the state
13 policies and procedures established by the Indiana department of
14 administration and approved by the budget agency.
15 (k) Each member of the working group who is a state employee,
16 but who is not a member of the general assembly, is entitled to
17 reimbursement for mileage and traveling expenses as provided
18 under IC 4-13-1-4 and other expenses actually incurred in
19 connection with the member's duties as provided in the state
20 policies and procedures established by the Indiana department of
21 administration and approved by the budget agency.
22 (l) Each member of the working group who is a member of the
23 general assembly is entitled to receive the same per diem, mileage,
24 and travel allowances paid to legislative members of interim study
25 committees established by the legislative council. Per diem,
26 mileage, and travel allowances paid under this section shall be paid
27 from appropriations made to the legislative council or the
28 legislative services agency.
29 (m) The working group shall:
30 (1) review policies, processes, tariffs, rules, and standards
31 relating to the interconnection of community solar facilities
32 and electricity suppliers; and
33 (2) not later than March 31, 2026, submit to the commission
34 a report containing the working group's recommendations
35 regarding creation, revision, or elimination of policies,
36 processes, tariffs, rules, or standards relating to the
37 interconnection of community solar facilities and electricity
38 suppliers as necessary for transparent, accurate, and efficient
39 implementation of this chapter.
40 (n) Not later than October 1, 2026, the commission shall adopt
41 regulations necessary to implement the recommendations
42 contained in the working group's report under subsection (m).
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1 (o) This section expires January 1, 2027.
2025 IN 541—LS 6512/DI 119