Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Renewable Energy Credits topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Committee examines H.289 changes to renewable-energy credits and alternative-compliance rates
Summary
Legislative counsel walked the House committee through H.289 language that would expand the Renewable Energy Standard to include 'clean energy' credits, change alternative compliance payments for distributed generation, and direct the PUC to distinguish and disclose types of energy credits.
Legislative counsel told the House Energy and Digital Infrastructure Committee on March 14 that H.289 would add “clean” energy to the state’s existing Renewable Energy Standard and change how tradeable environmental attributes are recognized and disclosed.
Ellen Tchaikovsky, Office of Legislative Council, said the bill directs the Public Utility Commission to “amend and expand its system of renewable energy credits” to include clean-energy generation, to recognize credits monitored on the New England Generation Information System (GIS), and to provide processes for recognition of attributes that are not traded on GIS.
The committee heard the bill would add a definition for “clean” and require PUC-regulated providers to disclose the type of generation used and to distinguish clearly between credits from clean, renewable and nonrenewable sources. Tchaikovsky summarized the drafting as follows: “The system shall recognize renewable energy credits monitored and traded on the New England geographic generation information system, shall provide a process for the recognition, approval, and monitoring of environmental attributes attached to clean and renewable energy that are eligible to satisfy the requirements … but are not monitored and traded on the GIS.”
Members pressed for clarity on whether a single megawatt-hour of generation could be the basis for multiple credits or attributes under the revised framework and whether different types of credits would be combined or tracked separately. Tchaikovsky said the bill’s language was drafted from administration proposals and that the committee should hear from the administration to describe how they envision REC and any additional credit types interacting in practice.
The bill also moves the alternative-compliance payment (ACP) for distributed renewable generation from a current statutory level of 6 cents per kilowatt-hour to a proposed 4 cents per kilowatt-hour “commencing on January 1, 2025,” with calculations to adjust the amount for inflation. The committee noted the change on page 14 of the draft and asked for details of the indexing process.
No formal action was taken. Committee members requested administration testimony and more detail from the Public Utility Commission to clarify how new “clean” attributes will be recognized, whether credits and other environmental attributes can be double-counted for the same megawatt-hour, and how disclosure and tracking will be implemented.
