In 1997 Nevada passed a Renewable Portfolio Standard as part of their 1997 Electric Restructuring Legislation (AB 366) It required any electric providers in the state to acquire actual renewable electric generation or purchase renewable energy credits so that each utility had 1 percent of total consumption in renewables.
However,on June 8, 2001, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed SB 372, at the time the country’s most aggressive renewable portfolio standard. The law requires that 15 percent of all electricity generated in Nevada be derived from new renewables by the year 2013. The new law phases in the renewable energy commitment so that there are 5 percent of new renewables in the year 2003, seven percent in 2005, nine percent in 2007, eleven percent in 2009, thirteen percent in 2011, and then reaching 15 percent in 2013. The law allows the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to develop a trading mechanism for renewable energy credits for the state’s utilities. In November 2003, temporary renewable energy credit regulations were ordered by the PUC to become permanent.
The2001 revision to the RPS keeps in place Nevada’s commitment to expand solar energy resources by requiring that at least 5 percent of the renewable energy projects must generate electricity from solar energy.
As of April 2005, both Sierra Pacific Power and Nevada Power have yet to meet the solar energy requirements of the Nevada RPS.
InJune 2005, the Nevada legislature passed a bill during a special legislative session that modified the Nevada RPS (Assembly Bill 03). The bill extends the deadline and raised the requirements of the RPS to 20 percent of sales by 2015. The bill also allows utilities to receive credits toward meeting the state’s RPS by investing in certain energy efficiency measures. The contribution from energy efficiency measures is capped at one-quarter of the total standard in any particular year. No credits are given for load management improvements.
More:
- Full Text of AB 03 – passed June 2005
- Full Text of SB 372 – signed June 2001
- RPS in Nevada Revised Statutes – the RPS is codified in NRS 704.7801 – NRS 704.7828
- RPS Administative Regulations – the administrative procedures involved in the Nevada RPS are codified in Nevada Administative Code 704.8831 – 704.8893
- Nevada Public Utilities Commission
- Review of the Draft Nevada Order Implementing the RPS Standard – by George Sterzinger, Renewable Energy Policy Project, January 2002
