Set Renewable Electricity Requirements

Section 1. The public service law is amended by adding a new article 12 to read as follows:

ARTICLE 12

RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARD Section 250. Purpose and scope.

251. Definitions.

252. Amount of renewable energy required.

253. Energy that qualifies for a solar renewable energy certif-

icate; registration requirement.

254. Using renewable energy certificates and solar renewable

energy certificates for renewable portfolio standard

compliance.

255. Issuance of renewable energy certificates and solar renewa-

ble energy certificates.

256. Alternative compliance payments.

257. Demonstrating compliance, reporting and recordkeeping.

258. Enforcement.

§ 250. Purpose and scope. 1. Each electric corporation that sells electricity to retail customers in New York state, shall include in its electric energy portfolio electricity generated from renewable energy sources. This article is designed to encourage the development of renewable sources of electricity and new, cleaner generation technology; minimize the environmental impact of air pollutant emissions from electric generation; reduce possible transport of emissions and minimize any

EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets

[ ] is old law to be omitted.

LBD01313-01-9

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adverse environmental impact from deregulation of energy generation; and support the reliability of the supply of electricity in the state.

2. This article governs the retail electricity sales of each electric corporation. This article does not govern installed capacity obligations.

3. This article does not apply to a private or government aggregator that contracts for electric generation service or electric related services, either separately or bundled, for its own facilities or on behalf of other business and residential customers in this state. This article does not apply to an energy agent. An electric corporation that is contractually obligated to sell electricity to an aggregator shall comply with this article by including the amount sold to the aggregator as part of its energy portfolio.

§ 251. Definitions. As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

1. "Alternative compliance payment" means a payment of a certain dollar amount per megawatt hour, which an electric corporation may submit to comply with the renewable energy requirement set forth in this article.

2. "Attribute" means a characteristic associated with electricity generated using a particular renewable fuel, such as its generation date, facility geographic location, unit vintage, emissions output, fuel, state program eligibility, or other characteristic that can be identified, accounted, and tracked.

3. "Bioenergy crop" means plants cultivated and harvested specifically for use as fuel for the purpose of generating electricity.

4. "Biomass" means any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis (excluding old-growth timber), including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crop residues, aquatic plants, wood and wood residues, animal wastes, and other waste materials.

5. "Black liquor" means a viscous liquid containing inorganic chemicals and organic material such as lignin and aliphatic acids, which is separated from wood during chemical pulping.

6. "Energy portfolio" means all of the electrical energy supplied by a particular electric power supplier or basic generation service provider to retail customers in the state.

7. "Energy year" means the twelve month period from April first through March thirty-first and shall be numbered according to the calendar year in which it ends.

8. "Fossil fuel" means natural gas, petroleum, coal, or any form, of solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel derived from such material.

9. "Fuel cell" means an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy in a hydrogen or hydrogen-rich fuel directly into electricity, without combustion.

10. "Generation attribute tracking system" means the environmental and emissions attributes tracking system for electric generation that is administered by New York state energy research and development authority pursuant to subdivision nineteen of section eighteen hundred fifty-four of the public authorities law.

11. "Geothermal energy" means energy generated by a steam turbine, driven by hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the earth's crust.

12. "Installed capacity obligation" means the requirement for an electric power supplier or basic generation service provider to obtain an amount of electrical generation capacity to meet load service obli-

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gations under the reliability rules of the New York independent system operator. Installed capacity includes the generation capacity which a company considers part of its own electric system, including wholly owned units, jointly-owned units, non-utility generation (NUGs), and purchases.

13. "Net metering" means a system of metering and billing for electricity in which the electric corporation or the electric distribution company:

(a) credits a customer-generator at the full retail rate for each kilowatt-hour produced by a renewable energy system installed on the customer-generator's side of the electric revenue meter, up to the total amount of electricity used by that customer during an annualized period, except for residential micro combined heat and power (micro-CHP) and fuel cell systems, which are credited at the avoided cost rate; and

(b) compensates the customer-generator at the end of the annualized period for any remaining credits, at a rate equal to the electric corporation's avoided cost of wholesale power.

14. "Old-growth timber" means wood or plant matter taken from a forest in the late successional stage of forest development, including plant matter taken from the forest floor. Late successional forests contain live and dead trees of various sizes, species, composition, and age class structure. The age and structure of old-growth timber varies significantly by forest type and from one biogeoclimatic zone to another.

15. "Qualification life" means, for any solar electric generation facility, the period beginning on the date on which the facility was authorized to energize and ending on the first March thirty-first that is at least fifteen years after the date of authorization to energize. A solar facility's qualification life applies to the facility itself, and to each piece of equipment included in the facility, regardless of any interruption in the solar facility's operation; or of any disassembly, relocation, sale or transfer of any piece of equipment included in the facility.

16. "Renewable energy certificate" means a certificate representing the environmental benefits or attributes of one megawatt-hour of generation from a generating facility that produces renewable energy, but shall not include a solar renewable energy certificate.

17. "Renewable fuel" means a fuel that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and is either derived from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical or photoelectric), or from other natural sources such as wind, hydropower, geothermal and tidal energy, or photosynthetic energy stored in biomass. This term does not include a fossil fuel, a waste product from a fossil source, or a waste product from an inorganic source.

18. "Resource recovery facility" means a solid waste facility that incinerates solid waste for the purposes of producing energy and recovering metals and other materials for reuse.

19. "Solar alternative compliance payment" means a payment of a certain dollar amount per megawatt-hour, which an electric corporation may submit to the commission to comply with the solar electric generation requirements set forth in this article.

20. "Solar electric generating facility" or "solar facility" means equipment used to produce solar electric generation.

21. "Solar electric generation" means creation of electricity using a system that employs solar radiation to produce energy that powers an

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electric generator. Solar electric generation includes technologies that utilize the photovoltaic effect.

22. "Solar renewable energy certificate" means a certificate issued by the commission or its designee, which represents one megawatt-hour of solar energy that is generated by a facility connected to the distribution system in New York, and has value based upon, and driven by, the energy market.

23. "Voluntary clean electricity market" or "voluntary clean electricity program" means any program, system, market or procedure through which retail electric customers may elect to purchase a renewable energy product on a voluntary basis. New York's power to choose program is a voluntary clean electricity program.

§ 252. Amount of renewable energy required. 1. Each electric corporation that sells electricity to retail customers in the state shall ensure that the electricity it sells each energy year in the state includes at least the minimum amount of qualified renewable energy required for that energy year. The minimum amount of qualified renewable energy shall be:

(a) for energy years two thousand twenty-one through two thousand twenty-five, thirty percent;

(b) for energy year two thousand twenty-six, forty percent with at least two percent derived from solar energy.

2. The commission shall adopt rules setting minimum amounts of renewable energy required for energy year two thousand twenty-seven and each subsequent energy year. The minimum amounts of renewable energy required shall be no lower than those required for energy year two thousand twenty-six. The commission, in consultation with the department of environmental conservation, electric distribution companies, the utility intervention unit of the department of state, the Public Utility Law Project of New York, Inc., the solar energy industry and relevant stakeholders, shall periodically consider increasing the renewable energy portfolio standards beyond the minimum amounts set forth in this chapter, taking into account the cost impacts and public benefits of such increases including, but not limited to:

(a) reductions in air pollution, water pollution, land disturbance and greenhouse gas emissions;

(b) reductions in peak demand for electricity and natural gas and the overall impact on the costs to electricity and natural gas customers;

(c) increases in renewable energy development, manufacturing, investment and job creation opportunities in New York; and

(d) reductions in state and national dependence on fossil fuels.

3. An electric corporation shall meet the requirements for solar electric generation through:

(a) retirement of solar renewable energy certificates through a renewable energy trading program approved by the commission in consultation with the department of environmental conservation; or

(b) submittal of one or more solar alternative compliance payments.

4. The following shall apply to the type of energy, and type of documentation, used for compliance with each of the requirements in this article:

(a) solar renewable energy certificates may be used to meet any requirement for solar electric generation;

(b) renewable energy certificates may be used to meet renewable energy requirements, but shall not be used to meet solar electric generation requirements.

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5. An electric corporation shall not demonstrate compliance with this article using direct supply of any type of renewable energy.

6. The same renewable energy shall not be used for more than one of the following:

(a) creation of a solar renewable energy certificate; or

(b) creation of a renewable energy certificate; or

(c) creation of a renewable energy certificate, or of any other type of attribute or credit, under authority other than the authority granted in section two hundred fifty-five of this article such as another state's renewable energy standards or any voluntary clean electricity market or voluntary clean electricity program.

7. Each megawatt-hour of retail electricity supplied in New York by an electric corporation subject to this article carries with it an accompanying solar obligation. All electric corporation solar obligations, taken together, must equal the statewide solar obligation set forth in subdivision nine of this section for energy year two thousand twentysix.

8. For electricity supplied during energy year two thousand twentysix, an electric corporation shall calculate its solar obligation as two percent of the total energy generated by the electric corporation.

9. The total statewide solar obligation shall be two percent of the total electricity sold to all retail customers.