State official outlines Vermont electric policies, growth of rooftop solar and costs of compliance

TJ Korr, regulated utility planning director at the Vermont Department of Public Service, told the Natural Resources & Energy committee that the presentation was "part 2" of an overview of Vermont's electricity policies, focusing on energy efficiency programs, the Renewable Energy Standard (RES), the standard-offer program and net metering.

Korr said the state collects roughly $50,000,000 a year from a separately stated energy-efficiency charge to fund electric-efficiency programs run by Efficiency Vermont and, as an exception, by Burlington Electric Department. He told the committee that Vermont gas systems budgets for thermal/process-fuel efficiency total about $6 million to $6.5 million annually and that some thermal-efficiency funding also comes from Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) revenues and forward capacity-market payments.

The Renewable Energy Standard, Korr said, is now organized into five tiers. He described Tier 1 as the total renewable requirement; Tier 2 as an in-state distributed-generation requirement (resources under 5 MW sited on the Vermont distribution system); Tier 3 as a fossil-fuel reduction requirement; Tier 4 as a new renewable-generation tier for projects built after 2010 (no size limit, deliverable into ISO New England); and Tier 5 as a load-growth tier for utilities that have already met high shares of renewables. Korr…