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Posts Tagged ‘SREC’

February 2012 SREC Auction Results

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

SRECTrade’s February 2012 SREC Auction closed this week. Below are the clearing prices by vintage across the markets SRECTrade is currently active in.

February SREC Prices Energy Year Ending
State 2010 2011 2012*
Delaware - - $60.00
Maryland In-State $180.00 $205.00
Maryland Out-of-State - -
Massachusetts - -
New Jersey - - $205.00
Ohio In-State - $285.00
Ohio Out-of-State - $40.00
Pennsylvania $9.99 $30.00 $35.00
Washington, DC - $275.00

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 matching bids and offers that cleared for a sale in the auction.

State Market Observations:

Please note, all capacity references are from the December capacity analysis and reference the amount of supply registered as of the end of December. Additional details regarding SREC issuance are provided in the capacity analysis.

Delaware (Supply: 25.5 MW | Demand: 19.8 MW): Pricing was down from $65.00/SREC to $60.00. The Delaware PSC approved the SREC Procurement Pilot Program for long term contract solicitations which should commence in Q2. As of January 3, 2012, PJM GATS reported the issuance of approximately 13,560 DE2011-12 vintage SRECs. Additional SRECs from prior eligible periods may also impact the market should there be a demand for these older vintage SRECs.

Maryland (In-state Supply: 37.8 MW | Demand: 27.6 MW): SRECs held at $205 this past auction period.  MD2011 Out-of-State did not trade. The state continues on pace to maintain a balanced supply relative to demand for the compliance year.

Massachusetts (Operational Supply: 32.5 MW | Demand: 55.7 MW): There was no sale of MA SRECs this period as they were sold in the Quarterly SREC Auction in mid-January. The next quarterly MA SREC auction will close in mid-April.

New Jersey (Supply: 483.2 MW* | Demand: 368 MW): The 2012 market dropped back down to $205 after the state legislature failed to pass a Bill to increase the solar requirements. Inaction will lead to continued declines in pricing.

Ohio (In-State Supply: 29.0 MW; Out-of-state Supply: 68.0 MW | Demand: 39.1 MW) : OH2011 sited SRECs dropped to $285 with growing SREC supply from large in-state systems. The out-of-state SREC market increased again to $40/SREC.

Pennsylvania (Supply: 159.4 MW | Demand 41.2 MW): PA2011 SRECs traded up again to $30/SREC and PA2012 increased to $35/SREC.

Washington, DC (Supply: 21.7 MW | Demand: 41.9 MW): The 2011 DC SRECs increased to $275/SREC.

For historical pricing please see this link. The next SRECTrade auction closes on Thursday, March 1 at 5 p.m. ET.

February 2012 SREC Auction Results

New Jersey Solar Legislation Doesn’t See the Light

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

New Jersey legislation to modify the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in order to increase demand to soak up existing excess supply failed to pass the NJ Legislature yesterday. In fact, the bill (S-2371) never even came to a vote because of disagreements among solar advocates, who were not in lockstep over issues such as the mix between distributed net-metered and larger utility scale projects.

Although Governor Christie signaled broad agreement with the majority of the bill in his Energy Master Plan, released in December, several last-minute changes were made in the final 2 days of the session. The complexity of these changes was apparently too great to digest given the limited time available. The view of the new legislature on this issue should not change appreciably with the start of the next session and the Governor’s support is clear.

At this point it is a matter of priority and the ability to put together a new bill and get it scheduled for a vote early in the new session. Although a setback for the solar industry in New Jersey for now, hopefully increased time to craft and debate the new bill will allow for more transparency and a lead to a better quality piece of legislation.

New Jersey Solar Legislation Doesn’t See the Light

January 2012 SREC Auction Results

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

SRECTrade’s January 2012 SREC Auction closed last week. Below are the clearing prices by vintage across the markets SRECTrade is currently active in.

January SREC Prices Energy Year Ending
State 2010 2011 2012*
Delaware - - $65.00
Maryland In-State - $204.99
Maryland Out-of-State - $35.00
Massachusetts - -
New Jersey - $245.00 $245.00
Ohio In-State - -
Ohio Out-of-State $30.00 $35.00
Pennsylvania - $20.00 $29.99
Washington, DC $250.00 $270.00

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 matching bids and offers that cleared for a sale in the auction.

State Market Observations:

Please note, all capacity references are from the latest SRECTrade capacity analysis and reference the amount of supply registered as of the end of December. Additional details regarding SREC issuance are provided in the capacity analysis.

Delaware (Supply: 25.5 MW | Demand: 19.8 MW): Pricing increased slightly this period, trading up to $65.00/SREC. The Delaware PSC approved the SREC Procurement Pilot Program for long term contract solicitations. As of January 3, 2012, PJM GATS reported the issuance of approximately 13,560 DE2011-12 vintage SRECs. Additional SRECs from prior eligible periods may also impact the market should there be a demand for these older vintage SRECs.

Maryland (In-state Supply: 37.8 MW | Demand: 27.6 MW): SRECs declined slightly to $204.99 this past auction period. While not seeing any demand all year long, MD2011 Out-of-State traded at $35/SREC. The state continues on pace to maintain a balanced supply relative to demand for the compliance year. As 2011 compliance obligations are finalized, a shortage of SRECs in the state, if any, will be reflected by an increase in prices at the end of the trading period.

Massachusetts (Operational Supply: 32.5 MW | Demand: 55.7 MW): There was no sale of MA2011 SRECs this period. The next quarterly MA SREC auction will close on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

New Jersey (Supply: 483.2 MW* | Demand: 368 MW): The 2012 market increased to $245 this auction period. Approximately 15% of the available supply in the auction cleared, representing a gap between buyer and seller’s expectation of value. Oversupply continues to grow as the state has averaged 32.0 MW installed per month since the beginning of the compliance period. October 2011 saw an increase in 41.2 MW. *Note: This figure represents the capacity registered in PJM GATS as of December 2011. Please reference the capacity analysis link above for details on NJ Office of Clean Energy installed capacity figures.

Ohio (In-State Supply: 29.0 MW; Out-of-state Supply: 68.0 MW | Demand: 39.1 MW) : There was no sale of OH2011 sited SRECs. The out-of-state SREC market saw activity, increasing in value from $30/SREC to $35/SREC.

Pennsylvania (Supply: 159.4 MW | Demand 41.2 MW): PA2011 SRECs traded up to $20/SREC and PA2012 increased to $29.99/SREC. HB 1508 will go before the Pennsylvania Commerce Committee this Wednesday, 1/11/12.

Washington, DC (Supply: 21.7 MW | Demand: 41.9 MW): Prices continue to increase as legislation closing the DC market borders and increasing requirements take effect on the market. The 2010 vintage cleared at $255.16/SREC, while the 2011 vintage cleared at $270/SREC. Note, the SREC and capacity figures do not take into consideration the amount of electricity delivered into the district that may be exempt from complying with the Distributed Generation Amendment Act increases, considering some electricity contracts may have been signed prior to the amendment’s implementation

For historical pricing please see this link. The next SRECTrade auction covering Q3 MA2011 generation closes on Tuesday, January 17 at 5 p.m. ET. The following auction covering all markets closes on Tuesday, January 31 at 5 p.m. ET.

January 2012 SREC Auction Results

MA DOER Releases Solar Carve-out ACP Guideline

Thursday, December 29th, 2011

On December 28, 2011, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) announced that after reviewing the public comments on the suggested 10-year Forward Schedule for the Solar Alternative Compliance Payment (SACP or ACP) rate, they published a guideline to establish the 10-year rolling ACP rate schedule. This guideline will act as an interim step to implement permanent regulatory change. The DOER will be working to revise the existing regulations to implement the new ACP schedule into the Solar Carve-Out program. It will replace the existing ACP rules that provided the DOER the discretion to reduce the ACP on an annual basis.

The DOER noted the following in its release:

“DOER recognizes the importance for project developers and project financers, along with retail electric suppliers with compliance obligations, to have greater certainty of the ACP Rate further into the future.  Additional certainty is expected to enhance parties’ abilities to estimate expected SREC revenue streams and to facilitate project financing and negotiations for long-term contracts for SRECs.  The ACP rate must be sufficient to ensure sufficient project profitability to stimulate market growth to meet the program goals, but avoid unnecessary costs to ratepayers”

DOER recognizes the importance for project developers and project financers, along with
retail electric suppliers with compliance obligations, to have greater certainty of the ACP Rate
further into the future.  Additional certainty is expected to enhance parties’ abilities to estimate
expected SREC revenue streams and to facilitate project financing and negotiations for long-term
contracts for SRECs.  The ACP rate must be sufficient to ensure sufficient project profitability to
stimulate market growth to meet the program goals, but avoid unnecessary costs to ratepayer

The ACP schedule to be implemented is at the values initially proposed. The table below outlines the schedule. Over the course of the 2012 and 2013 compliance periods, the rate will stay set at $550 per SREC and decline by 5% per year thereafter. Additionally, by January 31 of each year, the DOER will announce the new 10th year price in order to maintain a complete 10 year schedule at all times.

MA SACP Schedule 8_2_11

MA DOER Releases Solar Carve-out ACP Guideline

New York Solar Jobs Coalition Sets Aggressive Targets

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Solar industry representatives in New York are teaming up with organized labor and other environmental advocacy groups to put forth ambitious goals to build a sustainable solar industry in the Empire State. The organizations collectively form the New York Solar Jobs Coalition, and their agenda goes beyond just getting more solar power tied to the grid. The proposal supports strong labor protection and wage laws for solar industry jobs to attract a skilled workforce that will create a more independent energy infrastructure.

New York has been slow to implement solar targets for their energy sector, lagging behind neighboring states New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Now, the Solar Jobs Coalition is calling for a program that will install 5,000 megawatts (MW) of solar power, or roughly 3% of the state’s energy portfolio, over a 15-year period. With the benefit of observing other state-based solar industries, the Coalition is wisely tying these targets to strong workforce standards that ensure efficient, quality work.

“Here in New York, we want to be able to do this work in a way that is cost efficient and that we attract the people with the highest skill,” stated Denis Hughes of the AFL-CIO in a local public radio interview last week.

The legislation supported by the Coalition would create an SREC market that differs from other neighboring states as well. The new SREC market would support distributed generation from residential and small commercial systems by requiring a minimum of 20% of eligible SRECs to come from systems under 50 kW. To attract financing, particularly for large-scale projects, utilities would be required to offer long-term contracts for periods up to 15 years, subject to negotiation for exact length and pricing. The one potential weakness of the proposed legislation is that it does not set a non-compliance penalty, or ACP, that would push buyers into the market and set a price ceiling for the SRECs.

Leaning on Governor Cuomo and state legislators, the Coalition predicts their proposal will build a $20 billion industry to New York while increasing the state’s  energy independence and reducing its carbon footprint. The Coalition has garnered support from national and state chapters of solar industry representatives, organized labor, and environmental advocacy groups.

New York Solar Jobs Coalition Sets Aggressive Targets

Rhode Island National Grid Seeks Standard Contracts

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

National Grid Rhode Island is currently procuring applications for standard contracts from eligible Distributed Generation projects. The enrollment started on December 1, 2011 at 9am EPT, and will close on December 14, 2011 at 5pm EPT. The contracts will last for 15 years, and will cover a total of 5MW of capacity, with 1.5 MW allocated to wind and 3.5 to solar in the following distribution and ceiling price.

2011 Class Nameplate 2011 Target(kW) Nameplate 2011 Ceiling Price (cents/kWh)
Solar-PV: 10-150 kW 0.5 MW 33.35
Solar-PV: 151-500 kW 1.0 MW 31.60
Solar-PV: 501-5,000 kW 2.0 MW 28.95
Wind 1.5 MW 13.35

In order to be eligible for this procurement, systems must

  • Be an electric generation unit that uses exclusively an eligible renewable energy resource (as defined under R.I.G.L S39-26-5  and section 5 of the rules and regulations governing the implementation of a renewable energy standard)
  • Neither have begun operations, nor completed financing for construction
  • Be located in the Narragansett Electric Company ISO-NE load zone
  • Not have a nameplate capacity greater than 5MW
  • Be connected to the electric distribution company’s power system.

In addition, project owners must have submitted an Interconnection application and have a completed Feasibility or Impact study as defined in the Rhode Island Distributed Generation Interconnection Act and The Narragansett Electric Company Standards for Connecting Distributed Generation.

A performance guarantee deposit will have to be paid at the time of execution of the contract. It will be assessed based on $15.00 per REC for small distributed generation projects (<500kW), and $25 per REC for large distributed generation projects (>500kW) estimated to be generated per year. The total sum will be no lower than $500 and not more than $75,000. Should the distributed generation facility not produce the output proposed in its enrollment application within (18) months of contract execution, the contract will be voided automatically, and the performance guarantee deposit forfeited.

For facilities that are also being employed for net metering, a proposal may be submitted to sell the excess output from the project. In this case, the class in which the project belongs is determined by total project size, not the excess output offered.

The project must obtain qualification as a renewable resource as per Rhode Island’s Renewable Energy Standard, and must register with NEPOOL-GIS. Once qualified, National Grid must be designated to receive all the RECs produced by the project through NEPOOL-GIS.

More information and the application forms can be found on the National Grid Procurement Website.

Rhode Island National Grid Seeks Standard Contracts

Hearing on Pennsylvania SREC Bill (HB 1580) delayed again

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

A critical Pennsylvania House Consumer Affairs Committee hearing on the Pennsylvania Solar Jobs Bill (HB 1580) scheduled for Thursday, December 8th was delayed again, according to a news flier sent out by the Pennsylvania advocacy group PennFuture. This is the 2nd time that the hearing has been delayed in as many weeks. According to the PennFuture flier, the bill hearing was delayed due to a death in Committee Chair Rep. Godshall’s family. No reschedule date has been announced yet.

Hearing on Pennsylvania SREC Bill (HB 1580) delayed again

December 2011 SREC Auction Results

Friday, December 2nd, 2011

SRECTrade’s December 2011 SREC Auction has closed. Below are the clearing prices at which SRECs traded this month.

December SREC Prices Energy Year Ending
State 2010 2011 2012*
Delaware - $60.00 $60.10
Maryland In-State - $210.00
Maryland Out-of-State - -
Massachusetts - $530.00
New Jersey - $225.00 $225.00
Ohio In-State - $370.00
Ohio Out-of-State $30.00 $30.00
Pennsylvania $20.00 $10.00 $18.00
Washington, DC $176.00 $201.00

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 matching bids and offers that cleared for a sale in the auction.

State Market Observations:

Please note, all capacity references are from the latest SRECTrade capacity analysis and reference the amount of supply registered as of the end of November. Additional details regarding SREC issuance are provided in the capacity analysis.

Delaware (Supply: 22.8 MW | Demand: 19.5 MW): Legislation increasing the SREC requirement went into effect this past June but the market has yet to pick up in response. The Delaware PSC approved the SREC Procurement Pilot Program for long term contract solicitations. Meanwhile, the SREC market will likely pick up at the end of the energy year when electricity suppliers are more active.

Maryland (In-State Supply: 33.5 MW | Demand: 26.9 MW): SRECs increased 5.0% in value to $210 this past auction period. The state seems on pace to maintain a balanced supply relative to demand for the compliance year. As 2011 comes to an end, a shortage of SRECs in the state, if any, will be reflected by an increase in prices at the end of the trading period in the first quarter of 2012. Out-of-state SRECs continue to be a non-factor in Maryland.

Massachusetts (Operational Supply: 30.9 MW | Demand: 55.7 MW): Mass SREC values declined slightly to $530, from $535, in the December 2011 auction. Volume during this period was lower as most supply traded in the auction post the Q2 2011 issuance on October 17, 2011. The next big quarterly MA SREC auction will close on Monday, January 16, 2012.

New Jersey (Supply: 448 MW | Demand: 368 MW): The 2012 market stayed flat at $225 this trading period. Oversupply continues to grow as the state has averaged 27.1 MW installed per month since the beginning of the compliance period. Estimates for October 2011 are forecast at approximately 44 MW. For a more in depth look at New Jersey’s capacity and SREC issuance see this post.

Ohio (In-State Supply: 27.7 MW  Out-of-State Supply: 61.3 MW | Demand: 37.7 MW) : In-State SRECs dropped 2.5% to $370/SREC. The out-of-state SREC market saw activity, but declined in value from $55/SREC to $30/SREC.

Pennsylvania (Supply: 152.0 MW | Demand 40.4 MW): PA2011 SRECs stayed flat at $10/SREC and PA2012 declined from prior periods to $18/SREC. HB 1508 was recently introduced to address the state’s SREC market. This marks the beginning of a long process to rescue the PA SREC market. Until then, SRECs will continue to bottom out.

Washington, DC (Supply: 21.5 MW | Demand: 41.9 MW): Prices continue to increase as new legislation closing the DC market borders and increasing requirements take effect on the market.

For historical pricing please see this link. The order window for the January 2012 auction will close on Friday, January 6, 2012 at 5:00 p.m Eastern. For more information, please visit www.srectrade.com.

December 2011 SREC Auction Results

Massachusetts SREC Timeline

Monday, November 21st, 2011

To help with cash flow planning, it is important to understand the timeline inherent with the Massachusetts SREC program. Customers are often surprised to learn that SRECs are created by the state several months after they are produced. Here is a chart outlining when SRECs are created in Massachusetts.

Production Quarter

In Massachusetts SRECs are created once a quarter on a quarter delay. This means that a system that was installed in say, July 2010, will sell its first SRECs in January. Why the long delay? This is a function of the way the program has been implemented in Massachusetts. The solar system owners must first report solar production to the Production Tracking System (PTS). The PTS is part of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center and is in charge of collecting all renewable energy production data. At the end of each quarter all of the solar production information is submitted to the NEPOOL-GIS, a third-party organization that is in charge of the software used to register and track SRECs. The NEPOOL-GIS creates SRECs at the end of the new quarter based on the previous quarter’s production data.

SRECTrade holds a Massachusetts specific auction on the day that the SRECs get created or the first business day that they are available. For example, January 15th 2012 falls on a Sunday, so the auction will be held on Monday, January 16th 2012.

Massachusetts SREC Timeline

Delaware PSC Approves SREC Procurement Pilot Program

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

The Delaware Public Service Commission approved the SREC Procurement Pilot Program on November 8th, 2011. This program will allow qualified solar energy system owners to sell their SRECs at a fixed price for the next 20 years.

The program will only be open to certain DE solar owners, for example, eligible facility owners must have received approval of their “Accepted Completed Solar System Interconnection Application” on or after December 1st 2010. Another requirement stipulates that the facility must not have received supplemental funding from a public source other than grants associated with the Delaware Green Energy Program “GEP”.

The number of SRECs to be procured is tiered according to the system size from which they are obtained. They will also be priced accordingly. Based on the requirements for June 2011 through May 2012, the numbers and price are

Tier Size (kW) Number of SRECs Percentage of Total SRECs Price, 1st 10 years Price, next 10 years
1 <50 2972 13.4% $260 base, $235 alt+ $50
2a 50 – 250 2,000 9.1% $240 base, $175 alt+ $50
2b 250 – 500 2,000 9.1% Lowest Bid Price* $50
3 500 – 2,000 4,500 20.4% Lowest Bid Price* $50
4 >2,000 10,600 48% Lowest Bid Price* $50
+Alternative pricing for projects that received a GEP grant before December 10 2010.
* Prices for tiers 2b, 3 and 4 will be decided by competitive bidding amongst the applicants.

In the event of oversubscription for facilities in Tier 1 and 2A, systems will be eliminated via lottery, starting with systems enrolled in the equipment or workforce bonus program.

Payments will be made quarterly for Tier 1 and monthly for Tiers 2 and 3. The energy production must be measured by at least a standard, utility grade meter and online monitoring for Tier 1 systems, and a revenue grade meter with online monitoring for Tiers 2 and 3.

Facilities are obliged to deliver the number of SRECs as estimated for their system size when they apply. The Sustainable Energy Utility is obliged to purchase up to 110% of the estimated SRECs, but may choose not to purchase any additional surplus SRECs.

This program will likely commence this winter or spring, and SRECTrade will be supporting this program for all of our installers and their customers. Look out for a future email regarding the SREC Pilot Program.

Delaware PSC Approves SREC Procurement Pilot Program