The Puerto Rico Energy Commission has approved an administrative order requiring the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to adopt a number of amendments to the regulations covering interconnection and net metering of distributed generators. It also requires the State Public Energy Policy Office to evaluate certain components of solar generating systems. Generally, the Order pursues compliance with certain provisions of Law 57-2014, also known as the Transformation and Energy Relief Act of Puerto Rico. In the case of PREPA, the Commission mandates, among others:

• The preparation of an electronic application for interconnection of a distributed generator to the electric distribution system, which may be accessed by customers or installers contracted by them. A response to the application must be issued in 10 business days.

• Applications for interconnection of distributed generators must be evaluated in accordance with the Small Generator Interconnection Agreements included in the Federal Energy Regulation Commission's (FERC) Order No. 2006, as amended, and the recommended practices of the International Renewable Energy Congress (IREC) in the IREC Model Net Metering Rules and the Model Interconnection Rules; provided that in case of inconsistency, FERC's order must prevail. PREPA, however, may file a variance request, if, for some reason, particular conditions of Puerto Rico require a deviation from such procedures.

• Prepare an electronic application to participate in the net metering program that can be presented by consumers or their certified installers. A response must be issued by PREPA within five business days.

• Incorporation to the Net Metering Program of the practice known as Aggregated or Virtual Net Metering.

• Establishment of a Shared Renewable Energy Program for residential and commercial customers that cannot install renewable energy systems at their properties.

• Elimination of the requirement to install an external manual interrupter to distributed generation systems based on inverters of up to 300 kW, subject to certain requirements.

• Allowing assignment of Interconnection and Net Metering agreements, subject to certain conditions.

• Elimination of the insurance policy requirement for interconnection of systems of up to 300 kW, subject to certain requirements.

• Implementation of an expedite process of "Plug and Play" for residential and commercial systems of up to 10 kW.

• Creation of an electronic register of distributed generation systems interconnected to the grid. The system should require to the record installer information relating to the installed system.

The Commission will accept comments on the content of order during a 30 days term which will begin to run after the issuance of the order.