Renewable Portfolio Standard - Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Electric Utility Restructuring Act (Chapter 164, Acts of 1997 - the "Act") directs the Division of Energy Resources (DOER) to establish a Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard. The RPS requires that electricity suppliers provide retail customers with minimum levels of electricity generated from "new" renewable energy sources. The RPS requirements begin in 2003 according to the information contained in Table 1 below.

Resources which are eligible for RPS as new renewables include: solar,wind, ocean thermal, wave, and tidal, fuel cells using renewable fuels, landfill gas, and "low emission" biomass. To qualify as a new source, the renewable energy generating facility must have begun commercial operation after December 31, 1997.

More:

• Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources (DOER) section on the Massachusetts Renewable Portfolio Standard

Section 11F of The Massachusetts Electric Utility Restructuring Act
(Chapter 164, Acts of 1997)

(a) The division of energy resources, shall establish a renewable energy portfolio standard for all retail electricity suppliers selling electricity to end-use customers in the commonwealth. By December 31, 1999, the division shall determine the actual percentage of kilowatt-hours sales to end-use customers in the commonwealth which is derived from existing renewable energy generating sources. Every retail supplier shall provide a minimum percentage of kilowatt-hours sales to end-use customers in the commonwealth from new renewable energy generating sources, according to the following schedule:

(i) an additional 1 per cent of sales by December 31, 2003, or one calendar year from the final day of the first month in which the average cost of any renewable technology is found to be within 10 per cent of the overall average spot-market price per kilowatt-hour for electricity in the commonwealth, whichever is sooner;

(ii) an additional one-half of 1 per cent of sales each year thereafter until December 31, 2009; and

(iii) an additional 1 per cent of sales every year thereafter until a date determined by the division of energy resources. For the purpose of this subsection, a new renewable energy generating source is one that begins commercial operation after December 31, 1997, or that represents an increase in generating capacity after December 31, 1997, at an existing facility.

(b) For the purposes of this section, a renewable energy generating source is one which generates electricity using any of the following:

(i) solar photovoltaic or solar thermal electric energy;

(ii) wind energy;

(iii) ocean thermal, wave, or tidal energy;

(iv) fuel cells utilizing renewable fuels;

(v) landfill gas;

(vi) waste-to-energy which is a component of conventional municipal solid waste plant technology in commercial use;

(vii) naturally flowing water and hydroelectric; and

(viii) low-emission, advanced biomass power conversion technologies, such as gasification using such biomass fuels as wood, agricultural, or food wastes, energy crops, biogas, biodiesel, or organic refuse-derived fuel; provided, however, that after December 31, 1998, the calculation of a percentage of kilowatt-hours sales to end-use customers in the commonwealth from new renewable generating sources shall exclude clauses (vi) and (vii) herein. The division may also consider any previously operational biomass facility retrofitted with advanced conversion technologies as a renewable energy generating source. After conducting administrative proceedings, the division may add technologies or technology categories to the above list; provided, however, that the following technologies shall not be considered renewable energy supplies: coal, oil, natural gas except when used in fuel cells, and nuclear power.

TABLE 1: NEW RENEWABLE ENERGY PERCENTAGES

Other Resources:

• The Treatment of Renewable Energy Certificates, Emissions Allowances, and Green Power Programs in State Renewables Portfolio Standards - Edward Holt and Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, April 2007
• Renewable Portfolio Standard Fact Pack - State Environmental Resource Center, 2004
• The Renewables Portfolio Standard in Texas: An Early Assessment - by Ryan Wiser, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, November 2001
• The Renewables Portfolio Standard: A Practical Guide - by Nancy Rader and Scott Hempling, February 2001
• A Powerful Opportunity: Making Renewable Electricity the Standard - by the Union of Concerned Scientists, August 1999
• Interstate Renewable Energy Council
• Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)