The New York Public Service Commission recently issued an order modifying the Community Distributed Generation (CDG) membership requirements. As previously reported on our January 26, 2017 blog post, the order establishing a Community Distributed Generation (CDG) program stipulated a ten-member minimum for properties located on projects with multiple residential units as one of its requirements. The Petitioners argued that this requirement was in essence a barrier to the adoption of solar, and alienated members of the community that lived in multi-unit residential or mixed-use buildings with fewer than ten metered tenants from benefiting from the CDG program.

The Public Service Commission found in its ruling that, “removing the minimum ten membership requirement for on-site CDG installations on multi-unit housing is in the public interest.”

The Pace Energy and Climate Center supported the Petition to waive the ten-member minimum requirement, and highlighted the impediment issues the membership requirement would cause to the Community Distributed Generation (CDG) program.

Pace applauds the Public Service Commission for its decision, and we believe that this decision opens the gateway for low to moderate income households to have access to clean and affordable energy. Overall, this synthesizes with the vision of New York state in securing a sustainable future for all.

The new rule came into effect on April 1, 2017.