1 / 15

Renewables Portfolio Standard Status Report

Renewables Portfolio Standard Status Report. California Public Utilities Commission February 26 th , 2008. What is RPS?. Established under SB 1078 (2002) and SB 107 (2006)

mackensie-hinton
Download Presentation

Renewables Portfolio Standard Status Report

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Renewables Portfolio StandardStatus Report California Public Utilities Commission February 26th, 2008

  2. What is RPS? • Established under SB 1078 (2002) and SB 107 (2006) • Load-serving entities must procure an additional 1% of retail sales per year from eligible renewable sources until 20% is reached, no later than 2010 • CPUC oversees RPS procurement of Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs), Electric Service Providers (ESPs) and Community Choice Aggregators (CCAs) • Compliance is based on delivered energy • Publicly-owned utilities must design similar programs, report progress to the California Energy Commission

  3. RPS Procurement Process is Working • CPUC is responsible for overseeing RPS solicitations and reviewing IOU contracts for RPS-eligible energy. • 80 contracts approved since 2002, for almost 4,000 MW. • CPUC contract approval is not to exceed 6 months; approval time averaged 5 months over the past year.

  4. Participation in RPS solicitations is accelerating • Solar energy saw a dramatic increase in participation from developers in the 2007 RPS solicitation. • Wind and geothermal will continue to be large contributors to RPS generation.

  5. RPS Generation by Fuel Type • Wind and geothermal will be the largest contributors to RPS generation in 2010.

  6. Contracts signed and under negotiation may put IOUs close to 20% in 2010

  7. However, project viability is a concern

  8. Project development hurdles are the major source of risk • CPUC contract approval is only one step in the complex project development process. • Inter-agency coordination is key to reaching 20% Barriers facing projects needed to meet 2010 goal

  9. CPUC working on project development solutions • SB 1036 Implementation • Addressing transmission barriers: Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI), ISO Queue reform, streamlined permitting • Increasing supply: Feed-in tariffs (AB 1969), tradable RECs (CSI), Emerging Renewable Resource Program (ERRP) • Contract management work to track projects, improve analysis and reporting of challenges to project development • Future: Solutions team works with relevant agencies

  10. Prices for renewables are rising

  11. Above-market funds may not be sufficient

  12. Flexible Compliance Rules • Penalty for non-compliance is 5 cents per kWh, up to $25 million per year • Banking/Earmarking: LSEs can “apply excess procurement in one year to subsequent years or inadequate procurement in one year to no more than the following three years”, pursuant to Public Utilities Code §399.14(a)(2)(C)(i). • Penalties may be avoided or deferred pursuant to statutory or Commission adopted conditions, such as; • inadequate public goods funds to cover above-market costs (399.16(a)(8)), • insufficient transmission (399.14(a)(2)(C)(ii)), • lack of competition (399.14(d)) • insufficient response to solicitation, • seller non-performance. • An LSE is expected to reasonably diversify its RPS procurement portfolio, taking generation and transmission project development risk into account. • Any requested relief, including the use of flexible compliance, will be examined by the CPUC

  13. Flexible compliance may allow for more rational build-out, mitigate market power • Utilities over-contract to account for possible project failure • About 3,000 MW of new RPS development needed to meet 20% • About 3,600 new MW now under contract or pending CPUC approval

  14. Tradable Renewable Energy Credits • What is a Renewable Energy Credit? • A Renewable Energy Credit (REC) generally represents the environmental and renewable attributes of renewable electricity as a separate commodity from the energy itself. A REC can be sold either "bundled" with the underlying energy or "unbundled" into a separate REC trading market. • Currently, unbundled RECs do not count for RPS compliance. • Pursuant to SB 107, CPUC is currently considering the use of tradable (unbundled) RECs within the California RPS. Staff proposal for a tradable REC regime was issued in October 2007. • Goals for TREC regime, if adopted: • Encourage renewable development • Help overcome transmission issues • Increase market efficiency • Facilitate compliance by smaller LSEs • Lower RPS compliance costs • In the Western region of the U.S., RECs (both voluntary and compliance) will be tracked using the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS). 1. http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/electric/RenewableEnergy/misc/070824recworkshop.htm

More Related