By: Chelsea Harnish, VAEEC Executive Director

The 2016 Virginia General Assembly session has come to a close. You can see our previous updates here and here.

The good news is that SB 395 and HB 1053 have been signed by the Governor. As a reminder, here is the summary we shared previously: Removes the lost revenue recovery provision for utility EE programs and adds in a performance incentive based on levelized costs of energy savings (1% of costs returned if energy savings below 6 cents per kilowatt hour; 2% below 5 cents per kilowatt hour; 3% below 4 cents per kilowatt hour; 4% below 3 cents per kilowatt hour)  Download the 1053/395 fact sheet.

Thanks to everyone who came out for Clean Energy Day 2016

As a result of this new law, by the end of 2016 the State Corporation Commission (SCC) will issue a report on EM+V protocols. VAEEC plans to submit comments to the SCC about this important issue and will keep you posted as we learn more about the process.

Now on to the bad news… in a last minute upset, the Senate Commerce and Labor committee killed Del. Sullivan’s HB 1174, which would have required DMME to issue an annual progress report on where the Commonwealth stands in meeting the 10% by 2020 voluntary goal. We are disappointed in this turn of events, but we hope to work with the patron next year to re-introduce this legislation.