Posts Tagged ‘OH’

Ohio Revisits RPS for Post-freeze Plans

Posted February 21st, 2016 by SRECTrade.

In June 2014, Ohio Governor John Kasich signed a bill that froze Ohio’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) for two years. With the freeze lifting after 2016, Gov. Kasich called upon Ohio’s Energy Mandates Study Committee in 2015 to provide guidance on how to proceed with the state’s RPS. The 12-member legislative committee released its report in September 2015, recommending that the RPS be frozen indefinitely. Now, despite having signed the bill freezing the RPS in 2014, Gov. Kasich has taken the stance that gutting the state’s renewable mandates would be “unacceptable“, positioning himself for a fight with his General Assembly on the state’s clean energy goals.

Enacted in 2008, the Ohio Renewable Portfolio Standard establishes annual benchmarks for renewable energy procurement. The RPS sets the percent of electricity that must be generated from renewable energy resources by 2027. Within the overall RPS, a percentage must be fulfilled with solar resources. This solar carve-out establishes how many SRECs must be purchased by electricity suppliers. The overall RPS and solar carve-out were originally structured to increase annually between 2009 and 2024, but were frozen at 2014 levels through 2016. The RPS is currently frozen at 2.5%, with the solar carve-out at 0.12%. In the 2014 bill, the RPS schedule was revised to resume with a two year delay after the freeze, but it is possible that Gov. Kasich and Ohio’s General Assembly will now move the RPS in another direction.

SB310, the bill enacting the freeze, also removed the in-state RPS requirement and adjusted the Solar Alternative Compliance Payment (SACP) schedule. The freeze and concurrent changes made to the RPS resulted in devaluing OH-eligible SRECs, harming those who invested in solar in reliance on the state’s commitment to clean energy. Since the bill passed in mid-2014, the value of OH SRECs has dropped from $45 to as low as $15.

While Gov. Kasich claims that the original Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard is “unpalatable“, he has vowed that he would return the program back to its original state if the General Assembly refuses to unfreeze the program. But Ohio’s mixed record on renewable energy and the recent developments on the Clean Power Plan make the future of the RPS uncertain. For now, Ohio joins many other states in the tug-of-war battle over renewable energy policies, making 2016 an important year in shaping the states’–and country’s–clean energy future.

 

OH SREC Rule Change: SRECs only created from date of application to PUCO

Posted February 11th, 2013 by SRECTrade.

On January 1, 2013 the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUCO) stopped allowing SRECs to be created from power generated prior to the date of application for state certification.  The official reference to this rule change can be found  on the OH PUCO website.

What this means:

  • Starting in January 2013 SRECs are created from the date of application (this is in line with the rules for the PA SREC market).
  • SRECTrade applications should be submitted as soon as possible for all systems or some SREC opportunity will be lost.
  • Online monitoring software cannot be used to create SRECs retroactive to the date of interconnection.

Solar Capacity in the SREC States – December 2010

Posted January 5th, 2011 by SRECTrade.

SRECTrade SREC Markets Report: December 2010

The following post outlines the megawatts of solar capacity certified and/or registered to create SRECs in the SREC markets SRECTrade currently serves.

PJM Eligible Systems

As of the end of December, there were 11,241 solar PV (11,015) and solar thermal (226) systems registered and eligible to create SRECs in the PJM Generation Attribute Tracking System registry. Of these eligible systems, 35 (~0.3%) have a nameplate capacity of 1 megawatt or greater, of which only 3 systems are greater than 5 MW. The largest system, currently located in Ohio, is 12 MW,  and the second largest, located in Chicago and eligible for the PA and DC markets, is 10 MW. The third largest system, located in NJ, is 5.6 MW.

Massachusetts DOER Qualified Projects

As of December 10, 2010, there were 180 MA DOER qualified solar projects; 156 operational and 24 not operational. Of these qualified systems, 9 (~5.0%) have a nameplate capacity of 1 megawatt or greater, of which only 2 are between 1.5 and 2 MW. None of the projects greater than 1 MW are currently operational.

Capacity Summary By State

The tables below 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. For example, PA In State includes projects eligible to sell into the PA SREC market as well as projects that may also be eligible to sell into OH and DC. 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. For example, New Jersey needs approximately 255 MW online for the entire 2011 reporting year to meet the RPS requirement. Additionally, the data presented below 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 to date.

Dec JPEG Image updated

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