Will the Real Owner of Green Tags from DG Please Stand Up

At its May 5 meeting, the California Public Utilities Commission tried to split the difference in deciding who owns the renewable attribute of a green-powered system. The commission clarified that owners of renewable distributed-generation systems within utility service areas own the renewable energy credits (RECs) associated with green electricity. Moreover, the renewables credits will stay bundled with the associated electricity and may be used to satisfy utilities? targeted renewables portfolio standards (RPS), the CPUC concluded. CPUC president Mike Peevey noted that the proposed decision generated considerable opposition because of fears it would affect existing renewable qualifying facilities. He stressed that the order pertained only to distributed generation, such as photovoltaics, and not QFs, which supply contracted power to utilities. In written comments, the California Solar Energy Industry Association stressed that discrimination against ownership of renewable energy credits based on size or location on the grid was unjustified. ?Distributed-generation facilities are no less renewable than central station facilities,? the association said. Utilities, on the other hand, argued that all renewable energy credits associated with a green distributed-generation facility that has already received ratepayer subsidies should automatically count toward meeting the utility?s RPS targets, and that ratepayers should not have to ?pay twice? for renewable energy. Most other parties countered that renewable energy credits are the rightful property of distributed-generation owners. The Center for Resource Solutions contended that owners of renewable DG should be free to sell their renewable energy credits separately from the electricity generated by their facilities. The CPUC concluded that both arguments went too far. The commission noted that ratepayer subsidies do not provide all funds for building a distributed-generation facility. Likewise, distributed-generation owners interconnected to a utility grid do not have ?complete free rein to do as they please with those RECs,? the commission said. Including renewable distributed generation in the RPS program will likely promote installation of such systems either to serve on-site load or to sell the electricity to utilities, the commission concluded. The CPUC stressed that consistency was important in crediting output from renewable generation toward meeting the renewables portfolio standard. The commission also approved $57 million in incremental funding for Southern California Edison to expand four energy-efficiency programs designed to reduce peak customer demand by 37.5 MW in summer 2005, for an additional 193 GWh of energy savings. At the same time, the CPUC ordered Edison to redirect $18.7 million in uncommitted energy-efficiency funds from prior years to help fund the new programs this summer. Edison will use the increased funding to expand its residential energy-efficiency instant rebate program for compact fluorescent lights to include Energy Star refrigerators, pool pumps, and motors. It will also expand its Residential Appliance Recycling program by increasing incentives for recycling freezers to $50 and lifting the 1989 cutoff for incentives, which impelled Edison to reject 4,500 rebate customers last year. Two other-energy efficiency programs target commercial customers.

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Will the Real Owner of Green Tags from DG Please Stand Up

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