Xcel filed its revised tariff for the Community Solar Garden Program yesterday, in compliance with and response to the Minnesota Public Utility Commission’s August 6, 2015 and October 15, 2015 orders. The revised tariff contains numerous changes to Xcel’s September 15, 2015 draft tariff proposal, a few of which are highlighted below.

1.  Xcel clarified that the company will view two projects as being co-located when they are within 1 mile of one another and share common ownership, as opposed to language it had borrowed from state siting and tax statutes that proved difficult to administer. Further, Xcel confirmed that its signing a standard form contract under the program will relieve the developer from any further tests or inquiry by the company on co-location.
2. The tariff lays out procedures for an applicant with a co-located project to “scale down” the project if it exceeds the applicable co-located limits set by the Commission. Projects that scale down and complete additional requirements no later than Friday, November 8, 2015 will be in a position to move their applications forward and retain their queue positions.
3. In accordance with the Commission’s October 15, 2015 order, Xcel also limited the circumstances under which it will not proceed with interconnection to a finite list of material upgrades rather than the nonexclusive list contained in the September 15 filing.
4. The tariff also now states that an applicant cannot “transfer the Study Queue Position of any Community Solar Garden application to a different entity,” whereas after considerable deliberation the Commission decided to limit this restriction to the portion of any project exceeding the aggregate size caps set by the Commission.

Xcel’s tariff will become effective on October 27, 2015 unless an objection is filed or the Commission indicates otherwise.