Public Policy
Regulatory Issues
ACE NY monitors and participates in many regulatory activities at a number of State agencies and authorities, including but not limited to the Public Service Commission, the Department of Environmental Conservation, the Department of Agriculture and Markets, and NYSERDA. A few of the key state policy issues that are the subject of ongoing regulatory activity are listed below.The Renewable Portfolio Standard
A Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is a requirement that a certain percentage of our electricity will come from clean, renewable energy sources, such as wind or solar energy. An RPS is a tool that many states are using to incentivize investment in clean, renewable energy.The New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted an RPS on September 24, 2004 with the goal of having 25 percent of the state's electricity be supplied from renewable energy sources by 2013. The RPS was designed to support approximately 3,700 megawatts of new renewable generation, which will be about a 6 percent increase in renewable generation from the 19 percent of electricity the state gets now from large scale hydropower. The RPS program provides competitively awarded incentives to renewable facilities that draw on wind, sustainable biomass, and certain hydropower facilities (upgrades, and low-impact, run-of-river hydropower plants of less than 30 megawatts in capacity). The RPS also supports customer-sited fuel cells, photovoltaic systems, anaerobic digesters and wind turbines.
The RPS is funded through a small charge on rate payer bills. The PSC estimates that the RPS program will have modest impacts on customer bills, and will help stabilize or reduce wholesale energy prices as well as provide environmental and economic development benefits. The PSC also required a mid-term progress report in 2009 to evaluate the RPS program.
New York’s System Benefit Charge and Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard
By investing in energy efficiency, we can conserve energy, reduce our electricity bills, and avoid pollution. In New York, programs to encourage energy conservation and efficiency improvements are managed by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and are funded through the System Benefits Charge (SBC) and through a new, complimentary initiative, the Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard. The money is collected from New Yorkers through a charge on their utility bills. This system was created during the restructuring of New York's electricity markets in 1996, with the recognition that competitive markets alone would not result in certain programs that benefit the public-at-large.The programs supported by the SBC encourage individuals and businesses to better understand their own energy use and implement measures to reduce demand for electricity, such as purchasing more efficient appliances, improving industrial processes, upgrading lighting, or installing renewable technologies. Reducing demand for electricity avoids pollution and alleviates the need for new power-generating capacity. Furthermore, because increasing demand leads to higher prices, conservation can moderate energy costs for everyone.
Net Metering and On-Site System Interconnection
When businesses or residences install on-site renewable energy technologies they are contributing to the common good by reducing demand for electricity from the grid, avoiding pollution, and moderating electricity prices for all. Net metering is a policy that allows electric ratepayers to receive a retail rate credit for renewable energy generated but not used on site. If a consumer’s system produces more electricity than they are using at a certain time, they can contribute that electricity back to the grid and have their electric meter "spin backwards." Being able to reduce electric bills is a major incentive for installing wind, solar, and biomass technologies, but there are a variety of other benefits as well. These include the creation of green collar jobs from research, manufacturing, construction, installation and maintenance; environmental and public health benefits through the reduced use of pollution-causing fossil fuels; and increased farmland viability by enabling farmers to produce electricity on the farm (and in the case of digesters, using a waste product to do so). The Public Service Commission oversees implementation of net metering by utilities and also has standard intereconnection requirements to ensure these systems are connected to the grid safely.The 2008 legislative session marked a major milestone for New York's net metering policies. Prior to this year, net metering laws were very limited in terms of the types of customers and systems that were eligible for credits (primarily residential units only). Encouraged by a broad coalition spearheaded by ACE NY,of environmentalists and clean energy businesses and supporters, the NYS Legislature approved a package of bills that expands net metering to allow commercial customers to net meter wind and solar electric systems up to 2 MW or the customers' peak historic load (whichever is less). Additionally, wind and farm waste systems on agricultural lands can net meter up to 500 kW.
Net metering is a great example of the types of policies that can be enacted to support the development of a green economy, leading to increased energy independence and security and protecting our environment and public health from the dangers of fossil fuels and climate change.
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is a collaborative effort of northeast and mid-Atlantic states to address climate change caused by carbon emissions. RGGI creates a “cap and trade” program for carbon emission from the electric power sector. Under RGGI, electric power producers that emit carbon (fossil fuel generators) must have sufficient allowances (permission to discharge carbon) to cover the extent of their emissions.Each state is given a certain number of allowances, which are auctioned. The number of available allowances will decrease over time resulting in decreased carbon emissions and increased protection of our global climate. ACE NY’s interest in this process is to ensure that RGGI supports as much as clean power generation as possible by ensuring that the allowances are auctioned and that there are sufficient allowances set aside from the auction process and made available to green power marketers so that their customers can accurately claim to have contributed to a reduction in carbon emissions.
Voluntary Green Power Markets
The State Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) will ensure that all New Yorkers get a small percentage of their power from renewable resources. However, many individuals and businesses are making a stronger commitment to combating global climate change and reducing their “carbon footprint” by voluntarily purchasing renewable – or green – power, which is slightly more expensive. In fact, New York’s RPS explicitly acknowledged the important role voluntary green power purchases play by calling for voluntary purchases to contribute one percent of the new resources needed to meet the State’s 25 percent by 2013 goal.In New York, all customers can choose their supplier of electricity and gas. A customer may continue buying their energy from the the utility or switch to an Energy Service Company (ESCO). All New Yorkers can purchase green power through ESCOs that offer such products and many New Yorkers can access these companies directly through their utility’s websites. The PSC maintains a list of ESCOs on their website at www.AskPSC.com, and also provides information about retail customer choice, green power, and energy efficiency.
Green power purchasers have many options available to them at varying prices and consumers should use due diligence to ensure they are purchasing from reputable companies. One mechanism for doing so is to make sure that the green power is certified by a third party such as Green-E. The US EPA has a green power buyer’s guide that is useful.