republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/hb-2303.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Small agricultural generators; establishes parameters of a program."
description: "Establishes the parameters of a program under which small agricultural generators may sell the electricity generated from a small agricultural generating facility to its utility. Effective July 1, 2019, enrollment by eligible agricultural customer-generators in an existing net energy metering program conducted by an electric cooperative will cease, though a cooperative's customers who were participating as eligible agricultural customer-generators before that date are allowed to remain in the net metering program for not more than 25 years. A small agricultural generator is defined in this measure as a customer who operates an electrical generating facility as part of an agricultural business, which generating facility, among other conditions, has a capacity of not more than 1.5 megawatts, uses renewable energy as its total source of fuel, has a capacity that does not exceed 150 percent of the customer's expected annual energy consumption based on the previous 12 months of billing history, uses not more than 25 percent of contiguous land owned or controlled by the agricultural business for purposes of the renewable energy generating facility, and is a PURPA qualifying small power production facility. The program for small agricultural generators requires the generator to enter into a power purchase agreement with its supplier to sell all of the electricity generated at a rate not less than the supplier's State Corporation Commission-approved avoided cost tariff for energy and capacity. The program also provides for utilities to recover distribution service costs and costs incurred to purchase electricity, capacity, and renewable energy certificates from the small agricultural generator through its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) rate adjustment clause if the utility has a Commission-approved RPS plan and rate adjustment clause or, if the utility does not have a Commission-approved RPS rate adjustment clause, then the costs shall be recoverable through the supplier's fuel adjustment clause or through the utility's cost of purchased power. Finally, the measure directs the Commission to conduct a single docketed proceeding to implement the provisions of this measure. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 2303"
citation: "Virginia HB 2303 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Agriculture", "Animal Care and Food", "Energy Conservation and Resources", "Public Service Companies"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["J. Randall Minchew"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 19
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2017-01-12"
last_action: "2017-03-16"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8a37bd3c-42e0-481a-9e8f-da8c685ff988"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+HB2303"
source_hash: "81472bb4b1cd96feb6b153a962cae2d9cbf5c7010cc7a14a6721a03571ad6526"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 2303 (2017) — Small agricultural generators; establishes parameters of a program.

Establishes the parameters of a program under which small agricultural generators may sell the electricity generated from a small agricultural generating facility to its utility. Effective July 1, 2019, enrollment by eligible agricultural customer-generators in an existing net energy metering program conducted by an electric cooperative will cease, though a cooperative's customers who were participating as eligible agricultural customer-generators before that date are allowed to remain in the net metering program for not more than 25 years. A small agricultural generator is defined in this measure as a customer who operates an electrical generating facility as part of an agricultural business, which generating facility, among other conditions, has a capacity of not more than 1.5 megawatts, uses renewable energy as its total source of fuel, has a capacity that does not exceed 150 percent of the customer's expected annual energy consumption based on the previous 12 months of billing history, uses not more than 25 percent of contiguous land owned or controlled by the agricultural business for purposes of the renewable energy generating facility, and is a PURPA qualifying small power production facility. The program for small agricultural generators requires the generator to enter into a power purchase agreement with its supplier to sell all of the electricity generated at a rate not less than the supplier's State Corporation Commission-approved avoided cost tariff for energy and capacity. The program also provides for utilities to recover distribution service costs and costs incurred to purchase electricity, capacity, and renewable energy certificates from the small agricultural generator through its Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (RPS) rate adjustment clause if the utility has a Commission-approved RPS plan and rate adjustment clause or, if the utility does not have a Commission-approved RPS rate adjustment clause, then the costs shall be recoverable through the supplier's fuel adjustment clause or through the utility's cost of purchased power. Finally, the measure directs the Commission to conduct a single docketed proceeding to implement the provisions of this measure. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0565)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0565)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2303ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2303ER)
3. **House: Committee substitute printed 17104829D-H1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2303H1)
4. **House: Presented and ordered printed 17103607D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+HB2303)

## Votes

- Passed House — **82–13** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor with substitute — **18–2** (pass) · legislature
- Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute — **11–1** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **36–2** (pass) · legislature
- Read third time and passed House — **81–14** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Commerce and Labor — **11–1** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- J. Randall Minchew — primary (person)
- David E. Yancey — cosponsor (person)
- Joseph C. Lindsey — cosponsor (person)
- R. Steven Landes — cosponsor (person)
- Timothy D. Hugo — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2017-01-12** Presented and ordered printed 17103607D `introduction`
- **2017-01-12** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-01-17** Assigned C & L sub: Special Subcommittee on Energy `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-04** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-06** Committee substitute agreed to 17104829D-H1
- **2017-02-06** Engrossed by House - committee substitute HB2303H1
- **2017-02-07** Read third time and passed House (81-Y 14-N 2-A) `passage, reading-3`
- **2017-02-07** Reconsideration of passage agreed to by House
- **2017-02-07** Passed House (82-Y 13-N 2-A) `passage`
- **2017-02-08** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Commerce and Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-16** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-20** Enrolled
- **2017-02-20** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-21** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-16** Approved by Governor-Chapter 565 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8a37bd3c-42e0-481a-9e8f-da8c685ff988`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).