Archive for December, 2012

Update regarding Massachusetts DOER Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auction

Posted December 17th, 2012 by SRECTrade.

Earlier this month SRECTrade hosted a webinar on the Massachusetts SREC market. Since then, there have been a few questions relating to the Massachusetts DOER’s Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auction, informally referred to as the “Last Chance Auction.” Since there is a confirmed oversupply in Massachusetts for 2012, the Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auction will occur in July of 2013 for all unsold SRECs. The auction was designed as a “price support mechanism” for the Massachusetts SREC market, but it does not represent a “price floor,” a common misperception.

The specific dates of the auction are yet to be determined, but here is a rough outline of the timeline:

  • May 15th: Sellers may begin to deposit unsold SRECs int he Auction Account
  • June 15th: Deadline for sellers to deposit their unsold SRECs in the Auction Account (SRECTrade does this automatically for our customers)
  • Late June: Webinars, FAQs, Q&As will all be provided
  • July: Auction is held
  • August: Payments are made sometime in August
  • August 15th: Entire auction process (excluding payment delivery) must be completed by this date in order to commence 2013 SREC market activity

Here are a few key things to know about the auction:

  • All unsold SRECs must be deposited in the Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auction, otherwise they are forfeited by the seller and retired, having no value to the sellers (again, SRECTrade will ensure that every unsold SREC is deposited for our clients)
  • SRECs must be deposited in the auction by the original aggregator/account holder. 3rd party account holders are ineligible from participating in the Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auction
  • If the auction clears, sellers receive $285 per SREC (note: SRECTrade fees are applicable)
  • If the auction does not fully clear, every seller will sell an equal percentage of SRECs. If 50% of the auction clears, each seller will sell 50% of the SRECs deposited
  • SRECs that do not clear in the auction are returned to the seller with 3 additional years of life, so the SREC created in 2012 will have value to a buyer in 2013, 2014 and 2015
  • SRECs that do not clear in the auction are NOT eligible for any future Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auctions
  • If there is an oversupply, Buyers may “bank” up to 10% of their 2012 requirement and use them in 2013 or 2014

Here is the full webinar from December 5th, 2012:

Maximizing SREC Returns

Posted December 12th, 2012 by SRECTrade.

Who is watching your SREC account? We came across the story of a municipality that fell behind on managing its SREC account and had to implore large commercial and municipal solar owners to consider joining the 80+ MW of customers in our aggregation services!

A recent New Jersey article about a township and the SRECs that their Water Utility Division was selling titled “Water utility expected to rake in close to $100,000 to benefit ratepayers.” The utility expects to sell 1,500 SRECs that it has accrued since June of 2011. The market price today for those SRECs is roughly $80. So yes, that does result in over $100,000 in SREC revenue.

That said, the article could also be titled “Water utility loses close to $180,000 in SREC value” because if it had been selling its SRECs at market prices in regular intervals as they were issued since July of 2011, the total value of those SREC sales would have been over $280,000. And that does not even account for the time value of money.

Customers on the SRECTrade platform have their SREC accounts automatically updated and tracked to ensure that the SRECs are sold at regular intervals. We automate payments direct to bank accounts and even offer a service where we’ll actively manage the customers account. For a 500kW to 1MW facility, the customer would have paid a 1.0% in additional service fees on $280,000 in SREC transactions. In addition, if they had sold in our auction, the total fees, including the service fee, of 1.5%. That said, the fees don’t matter at all when a passive SREC management approach results in $180,000 in lost revenue!

If you have a commercial solar facility, you may feel like you can stay on top of the SREC market when you first get started, but it is not uncommon for other priorities to overshadow the management of your SRECs, two, five or ten years down the line. Especially in the case of municipalities, where approval processes can take forever. SRECTrade works with dozens of municipalities in a way that allows them to reduce the need for onerous approval processes, allowing them to stay on top of a rapidly changing SREC market. The fees are minimal and it is a no-brainer to make sure that you have someone ensuring that you are maximizing your returns!

December 2012 SREC Auction Results

Posted December 12th, 2012 by SRECTrade.

SRECTrade’s December 2012 SREC Auction closed last week. Below are the clearing prices by vintage across the markets covered in the auction.

December SREC Prices Energy Year Ending
State 2011 2012 2013*
Delaware
Maryland $140.00 $140.00
Massachusetts $206.96
New Jersey $82.00 $85.00
Ohio In-State $35.00
Ohio Out-of-State $8.99 $8.99
Pennsylvania $8.99
Washington, DC $300.00 $308.61

Notes:
*Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania operate on a June-May energy year.
Green text represents a price increase over the last auction clearing price for that vintage, red text represents a decrease.
“-” reflects no sale, which would result if there were no SRECs available for sale in that vintage or there were no matching bids and offers to determine a clearing price.

For detailed analysis of SREC market prices and trends please subscribe to the SREC Market Monitor, a joint publication of Greentech Media’s GTM Research and SRECTrade.

State Market Observations:

Delaware: No DE SRECs transacted in the December auction.  The last auction price for DE2012 SRECs was $40.00 in the September 2012 auction. Most demand for DE SRECs will be through the DE SEU SREC Procurement Program solicitations. More information about these solicitations can be found at srecdelaware.com.

Maryland: MD2012 SRECs increased in price, trading at $140/SREC. The increase in price is a result of the Maryland Energy Administration’s announcement about how the SRECs from the Mount St. Mary’s University 17.4 MW project will be managed.

Massachusetts: MA2012 SRECs traded at $206.96/SREC. SREC issuance volumes in Q1 and Q2 2012 and July – November 2012 MWhs reported to the MA CEC demonstrate that 2012’s requirements have been met. The next SREC issuance for Q3 2012 generation will fall on January 15, 2013. The 2012 market will likely be oversupplied by approximately 50% of this year’s compliance obligation.

New Jersey: NJ2012 and NJ2013 SRECs traded up $12 and $15/SREC, respectively. Yesterday, the NJ Office of Clean Energy announced total installed capacity through November was estimated to be 950 MW, a monthly increase of approximately 31 MW. Monthly install rates continue to surpass RPS requirements.

Ohio: OH2012 Sited SRECs declined to $35/SREC and OH2011 Adjacent and OH2012 Adjacent SRECs traded at $8.99/SREC. Both markets are oversupplied. Most demand for OH Sited SRECs has been fulfilled through long term agreements with large utility scale projects or through long term RFPs with the state’s regulated utilities. Given the current market, it is likely there will be minimal demand for the remaining part of the 2012 compliance year.

Pennsylvania: PA2013 SRECs traded at $8.99/SREC, inline with the November 2012 auction. SREC oversupply continues to impact PA’s market. 

Washington, DC: The 2011 and 2012 vintages increased to $300 and $308.61/SREC, respectively. Increases in price may continue as the 2012 market is likely under supplied given the estimated requirements for the 2012 compliance year.

For historical auction pricing please see this link. The next SRECTrade auction closes on Monday, January 7th at 5 p.m. ET and will cover PJM Solar RECs. The next SRECTrade MA SREC auction closes on Tuesday, January 15th at 5 p.m. ET. Click here to sign in and place an order.

Solar Capacity in the SREC States – November 2012

Posted December 9th, 2012 by SRECTrade.

SRECTrade SREC Markets Report: November 2012

The following post outlines the megawatts of solar capacity certified to create SRECs in the Solar REC markets SRECTrade currently serves. All PJM data is based on the information available in PJM GATS as of the date noted. All MA data is based on the information provided by the DOER as of the date noted. This analysis does not include projects that are not yet registered and certified with the entities noted herein.

A more detailed analysis of supply, demand and price trends in the SREC markets can be found in the SREC Market Monitor, a joint-venture between SRECTrade and Greentech Media’s GTM Research.

A PDF copy of this table can be found here.

***NJ Update*** NJ Clean Energy Program Installed Capacity as of 12/11/12: Preliminary estimates through November 2012 reached approximately 950 MW of installed solar capacity; a 31 MW increase over the prior month. The number in the table above represents all capacity registered in GATS as of the date noted. The remaining capacity will be registered and receive SREC credit from the date of project interconnection.

Overview of PJM Eligible Systems

As of December 6, 2012 there were 29,870 solar PV and 565 solar thermal systems registered and eligible to create SRECs in the PJM Generation Attribute Tracking System (GATS). Of these, 192 (0.63%) have a nameplate capacity of 1 megawatt or greater. Twenty of these projects have a nameplate capacity of 5 MW or greater, up from 19 projects in the last analysis. New Jersey continues to host most of the larger scale facilities, claiming home to 70% of the projects, 14 of 20 facilities, that are equal to or greater than 5 MW. The three largest projects continue to be the 25.1 MW PSE&G utility pole mount project located in NJ, the 16.1 MW Mount St. Mary’s project in MD, and the 12.5 MW ACE Oak Fairton project located in NJ.

Massachusetts DOER Qualified Projects

As of December 12, 2012, there were 4,052 MA DOER qualified solar projects; 4,035 operational and 17 not operational. Total qualified capacity is 157.7 MW, 140.5 of which is operational and 17.3 MW not operational. Electricity suppliers providing power to the state need to acquire approximately 73,400 SRECs in 2012. According to NEPOOL GIS, 44,956 Q1 and Q2 2012 SRECs have been issued for the year to date. Additionally, 59,890 MWhs were reported to the MassCEC production tracking system for the 5 months covering July-November 2012.

How to Interpret This Table

The tables above demonstrate the capacity breakout by state. Note, that for all PJM GATS registered projects, each state includes all projects certified to sell into that state. State RPS programs that allow for systems sited in other states to participate have been broken up by systems sited in-state and out-of-state. Additional detail has been provided to demonstrate the total capacity of systems only certified for one specific state market versus being certified for multiple state markets. For example, PA includes projects only certified to sell into the PA SREC market, broken out by in-state and out-of-state systems, as well as projects that are also certified to sell into PA and Other State markets broken out by in state and out of state systems (i.e. OH, DC, MD, DE, NJ). PA Out-of-State includes systems sited in states with their own state SREC market (i.e. DE) as well as systems sited in states that have no SREC market (i.e. VA). Also, it is important to note that the Current Capacity represents the total megawatts eligible to produce and sell SRECs as of the noted date, while the Estimated Required Capacity – Current and Next Reporting Year represents the estimated number of MW that need to be online on average throughout the reporting period to meet the RPS requirement within each state with only that particular compliance period vintage. For example, New Jersey needed approximately 496.7 MW online for the entire 2013 reporting year to meet the RPS requirement with 2013 vintage SRECs only. SRECs still available from prior eligible periods can also impact the Solar RPS requirements. Additionally, the data presented above does not include projects that are in the pipeline or currently going through the registration process in each state program. This data represents specifically the projects that have been approved for the corresponding state SREC markets as of the dates noted.

Note: SREC requirements for markets without fixed SREC targets have been forecast based on EIA Report “Retail Sales of Electricity by State by Provider” updated 10/1/12. Projected SRECs required utilizes the most recent EIA electricity data applying an average 1.5% growth rate per forecast year. The state’s RPS Solar requirement is then multiplied by forecast total electricity sales to arrive at projected SRECs required. Projected capacity required is based on a factor of 1,200 MWh in PJM states and 1,130 MWh in MA, generated per MW of installed capacity per year.

 

Massachusetts SREC Webinar Posted to YouTube

Posted December 6th, 2012 by SRECTrade.

SRECTrade hosted a webinar on Wednesday, 12/5/2012. You may watch the webinar by clicking on this link.  The webinar covers the status of the Massachusetts SREC Program, an update on SRECTrade’s services, an analysis of the SREC market moving forward and some best practices on getting solar installations registered to create Massachusetts Solar Renewable Energy Certificates.