SCC circulates draft HB 395 notification form for public comment

What happened

On June 17, the State Corporation Commission's HB 395 stakeholder work group circulated a draft of the standardized notification form that Virginia utilities will accept from residents who install plug-in solar systems. The draft is the work group's first public product since it was seated in January.

HB 395 does not require a customer to obtain permission before plugging in a compliant system, but it directs the SCC to publish a uniform notification template so that residents who want to notify their utility have a single, non-burdensome way to do so. The draft is that template.

What's in the draft form

The draft fits on a single page and asks for exactly the information the utility needs to log the system on the customer's account:

• Customer name, service address, and account number
• Manufacturer, model, and UL 3700 certification number
• Total AC output (must be ≤ 1,200 W)
• Number of microinverters and outlet(s) they connect to
• Date placed in service
• Customer signature attesting the system is UL 3700-listed

Notably absent: any request for site drawings, electrician sign-off, proof of homeowner insurance, or landlord consent. The work group's cover memo explicitly notes that requiring any of those would exceed the SCC's authority under the statute.

What's still missing

Three questions the draft leaves open:

• Submission channel. The form doesn't specify whether utilities must accept it by web upload, email, or paper mail. Dominion's separate draft (published in March) accepts all three; other Virginia utilities have not yet said.

• Response acknowledgment. There is no requirement that the utility acknowledge receipt. Consumer advocates on the work group are pushing for a 15-day auto-acknowledgment.

• Multi-unit buildings. The form assumes one account per system. Buildings where several tenants share one master meter aren't addressed; those cases will likely need landlord-facilitated notification instead.

How to comment

The SCC is accepting written comments through August 1, 2026 via the commission's Document Control Center. The work group expects to publish a final template by mid-October, in time for utilities to integrate it into their customer portals before HB 395's consumer protections take effect on January 1, 2027.

For a step-by-step walk-through of Dominion's own draft process, see our explainer on Dominion's voluntary notification.

Related Reading

• Follow running updates on our State Corporation Commission form status.
• Compare the SCC draft with utility filings in our report on the Dominion Energy notification form filing.
• Learn about the public comments process in SCC stakeholder work group progress.