republic-os/legislation/us/states/co/2021a/sb-21-261.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Public Utilities Commission Encourage Renewable Energy Generation"
description: "Section 1 of the act declares that customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities (distributed generation) such as rooftop solar can make important contributions toward meeting Colorado's declared goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing a reliable, adaptable supply of electricity for homes, businesses, and the rapidly increasing numbers of electric vehicles, and that existing limits on customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities unnecessarily restrict this potential.Sections 3 and 5 remove most of the existing limitations on the size of distributed generation facilities, which currently cannot exceed 120% of a customer's historical annual usage, to qualify for renewable energy credits. Section 3 also expands an existing exemption from regulation as a public utility to include persons who sell excess power from distributed generation located anywhere on their property or on property owned or leased by others in a master meter operation, e.g., an apartment building or mobile home park. Section 4 grants master meter operators (MMOs) that sell power from distributed generation a limited exemption from the general requirement not to charge their end users any amount above what they are billed for electricity supplied by the serving electric utility. MMOs may retain refunds, rebates, rate reductions, net metering credits, and similar reductions offered by the serving utility in its net metering program. The public utilities commission (PUC) is directed to adopt rules encouraging landlords and tenants in multi-unit buildings to share in the costs and benefits of installing new distributed generation facilities.Section 5 requires a qualifying retail utility to allow, and to adopt standards for the approval of, customer-owned meter collar adapters in residential installations. The PUC retains authority to resolve any disputes concerning the standards or their application in specific cases. Section 2 defines a meter collar adapter as a device installed between the electric meter and the meter socket box that allows the customer to interconnect power from on-site sources.Section 5 also:Replaces the term \"standard rebate offer\" with \"net metering service\" where appropriate, to more accurately reflect current practice;"
jurisdiction: "us/states/co"
legislature: "Colorado General Assembly"
session: "2021A"
identifier: "SB 21-261"
citation: "Colorado SB 21-261 (2021A)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Alex Valdez", "Judy Amabile", "Kevin Priola", "Stephen Fenberg"]
version_count: 10
action_count: 16
vote_count: 9
first_action: "2021-05-04T06:00:00+00:00"
last_action: "2021-06-21T06:00:00+00:00"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/38ba61c6-561e-4c0b-a0f5-60b4a7087083"
source_url: "http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sb21-261"
source_hash: "dbf8df11cb1a5210684de82324ae2c82fda46e2ae5a3d66dbcf12c8c579c4575"
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-co"]
---

# Colorado SB 21-261 (2021A) — Public Utilities Commission Encourage Renewable Energy Generation

Section 1 of the act declares that customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities (distributed generation) such as rooftop solar can make important contributions toward meeting Colorado's declared goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions while providing a reliable, adaptable supply of electricity for homes, businesses, and the rapidly increasing numbers of electric vehicles, and that existing limits on customer-sited renewable energy generation facilities unnecessarily restrict this potential.Sections 3 and 5 remove most of the existing limitations on the size of distributed generation facilities, which currently cannot exceed 120% of a customer's historical annual usage, to qualify for renewable energy credits. Section 3 also expands an existing exemption from regulation as a public utility to include persons who sell excess power from distributed generation located anywhere on their property or on property owned or leased by others in a master meter operation, e.g., an apartment building or mobile home park. Section 4 grants master meter operators (MMOs) that sell power from distributed generation a limited exemption from the general requirement not to charge their end users any amount above what they are billed for electricity supplied by the serving electric utility. MMOs may retain refunds, rebates, rate reductions, net metering credits, and similar reductions offered by the serving utility in its net metering program. The public utilities commission (PUC) is directed to adopt rules encouraging landlords and tenants in multi-unit buildings to share in the costs and benefits of installing new distributed generation facilities.Section 5 requires a qualifying retail utility to allow, and to adopt standards for the approval of, customer-owned meter collar adapters in residential installations. The PUC retains authority to resolve any disputes concerning the standards or their application in specific cases. Section 2 defines a meter collar adapter as a device installed between the electric meter and the meter socket box that allows the customer to interconnect power from on-site sources.Section 5 also:Replaces the term "standard rebate offer" with "net metering service" where appropriate, to more accurately reflect current practice;

## Version chain

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

1. **Committee Amendment** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2021a_sb261_h_app_003.pdf)
2. **Engrossed (05/19/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_eng.pdf)
3. **Final Act (06/18/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_enr.pdf)
4. **Introduced (05/04/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_01.pdf)
5. **PA1 (05/28/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261ene.pdf)
6. **PA2 (06/04/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261app.pdf)
7. **Reengrossed (05/20/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_ren.pdf)
8. **Rerevised (06/07/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_rer.pdf)
9. **Revised (06/04/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021A/bills/2021a_261_rev.pdf)
10. **Signed Act (06/21/2021)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/2021a_261_signed.pdf)

## Votes

- BILL — **41–22** (pass) · lower
- CONCUR — **23–11** (pass) · upper
- AMEND — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- BILL — **27–7** (pass) · upper
- REPASS — **22–12** (pass) · upper
- AMD — **23–39** (fail) · lower
- AMD — **24–38** (fail) · lower
- AMD — **25–37** (fail) · lower
- AMD — **24–38** (fail) · lower

## Sponsors

- Alex Valdez — primary (person)
- Judy Amabile — primary (person)
- Kevin Priola — primary (person)
- Stephen Fenberg — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2021-06-21T06:00:00+00:00** Governor Signed `executive-signature`
- **2021-06-18T06:00:00+00:00** Sent to the Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2021-06-18T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the Speaker of the House
- **2021-06-18T06:00:00+00:00** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2021-06-08T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Considered House Amendments - Result was to Concur - Repass
- **2021-06-07T06:00:00+00:00** House Third Reading Passed - No Amendments `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-06-04T06:00:00+00:00** House Second Reading Special Order - Passed with Amendments - Committee, Floor
- **2021-06-04T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Appropriations Refer Amended to House Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-27T06:00:00+00:00** House Committee on Energy & Environment Refer Amended to Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2021-05-20T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In House - Assigned to Energy & Environment `introduction`
- **2021-05-20T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Third Reading Passed with Amendments - Floor `passage, reading-3`
- **2021-05-19T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Passed with Amendments - Floor `reading-2`
- **2021-05-18T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2021-05-17T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Second Reading Laid Over Daily - No Amendments
- **2021-05-13T06:00:00+00:00** Senate Committee on Transportation & Energy Refer Unamended to Senate Committee of the Whole `committee-passage, referral-committee`
- **2021-05-04T06:00:00+00:00** Introduced In Senate - Assigned to Transportation & Energy `introduction`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/38ba61c6-561e-4c0b-a0f5-60b4a7087083`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Colorado legislature records).