As used in this section:
(A) "Commission" means the Public Service Commission of the State of South Carolina.
(B) "Customer" means the person who is named on the electrical utility bill for the premises.
(C) "Customer-generator" means the owner, operator, lessee, or customer-generator lessee of an electric energy generation unit which:
(1) generates or discharges electricity from a renewable energy resource, including an energy storage device configured to receive electrical charge solely from an onsite renewable energy resource;
(2) has an electrical generating system with a capacity of:
(a)(i) not more than the lesser of one thousand kilowatts (1,000 kW AC) or one hundred percent of contract demand if a nonresidential customer; or
(ii) after June 1, 2025, not more than the lesser of five thousand kilowatts (5,000kW AC) or one hundred percent of contract demand for a nonresidential customer, provided the customer-generator is on a time-of-use rate schedule and any excess energy produced by the customer-generator is credited and reset at the end of each monthly period; or
(iii) more than five thousand kilowatts (5,000kW AC) if agreed to by the customer-generator and the electrical utility, provided that the electrical utility submits the agreement to the commission for consideration and approval if the commission finds the agreement to contain appropriate ratemaking provisions and is in the public interest; or
(b) not more than twenty kilowatts (20 kW AC) if a residential customer;
(3) is located on a single premises owned, operated, leased, or otherwise controlled by the customer;
(4) is interconnected and operates in parallel phase and synchronization with an electrical utility and complies with the applicable interconnection standards;
(5) is intended primarily to offset part or all of the customer-generator's own electrical energy requirements; and
(6) meets all applicable safety, performance, interconnection, and reliability standards established by the commission, the National Electrical Code, the National Electrical Safety Code, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Underwriters Laboratories, the federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and any local governing authorities.
(D) "Electrical utility" shall be defined as in Section 58-27-10; provided, however, that electrical utilities serving less than one hundred thousand customer accounts shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter.
(E) "Net energy metering" means using metering equipment sufficient to measure the difference between the electrical energy supplied to a customer-generator by an electrical utility and the electrical energy supplied by the customer-generator to the electricity provider over the applicable billing period.
(F) "Renewable energy resource" means solar photovoltaic and solar thermal resources, wind resources, hydroelectric resources, geothermal resources, tidal and wave energy resources, recycling resources, hydrogen fuel derived from renewable resources, combined heat and power derived from renewable resources, and biomass resources as defined in Section 12-63-20(B)(2).
(G) "Solar choice metering measurement" means the process, method, or calculation used for purposes of billing and crediting at the commission determined value.