Washington, DC Councilmember Mary M. Cheh has introduced a Bill to amend the solar carve-out in the District. It is called the Distributed Generation Amendment Act of 2011. The announcement can be found here. Among the changes, the most notable will restrict the DC SREC market to facilities located in the District, starting in 2012. The Bill will grandfather any facilities registered in DC prior to January 31, 2011. In addition to this notable change, the requirements in each year will increase significantly through 2020 and the SACP will be extended until 2020. Here are the key details:
1. Facilities sited outside D.C. will remain eligible as long as they were registered with the D.C. Public Service Commission prior to January 31, 2011.
2. Starting in 2011, solar requirements will increase as follows:
| Year | Old RPS Solar Requirement | New RPS Solar Requirement | SACP |
| 2011 | 0.04% | 0.25% | $500 |
| 2012 | 0.07% | 0.50% | $500 |
| 2013 | 0.10% | 0.75% | $500 |
| 2014 | 0.13% | 1.00% | $500 |
| 2015 | 0.17% | 1.25% | $500 |
| 2016 | 0.21% | 1.50% | $500 |
| 2017 | 0.25% | 1.75% | $500 |
| 2018 | 0.30% | 2.00% | $500 |
| 2019 | 0.35% | 2.25% | $500 |
| 2020 | 0.40% | 2.50% | $500 |
This is good news for what has been an oversubscribed D.C. SREC market, though it will have a negative impact on facilities across the region that will not be registered by January 31, 2011. Facilities that are registered and included after any changes are made will benefit from inclusion in the D.C. SREC market which should see a rebound in pricing. Unlike the unsuccessful efforts of Pennsylvania earlier this year to exclude out-of-state facilities, this effort by D.C. has been done with the consideration of the solar owners that have committed to solar on account of the opportunity to sell SRECs in D.C. Regardless of the merits of a move to a closed SREC market, the inclusion of previously registered facilities is a crucial aspect of any changes that are made.
Note: It is still too early to tell if this Bill will pass. It is highly unlikely that it would be passed before January 31. Therefore it is unclear what the deadline will be if/when such a bill were to pass. Anyone considering submitting an application to the D.C. market that should file one directly with the D.C. Public Service Commission. Instructions can be found on our State Certifications page.
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