The Clean Energy Act, signed by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy in May 2018, states that new rules and regulations will be adopted to close the NJ SREC program upon attainment of 5.1 percent of the kilowatt-hours sold in the state by solar electric power generators. Based on recent build rates, the NJ SREC market is expected to reach the program’s maximum capacity of 5.1% by mid-2020, at which point, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJ BPU) will transition the state to a new program. While the NJ BPU released a straw proposal in 2018 on the anticipated market closure, the exact strategy of determining the 5.1% attainment and eventual transition program is yet to be confirmed.
The enclosed analysis further details the implications of this market close and SRECTrade’s estimated market dynamics through 2022. The analysis assumes flat load through 2022 and utilizes a capacity factor of 12.56%, the approximate running average capacity factor across NJ certified solar facilities since 2012. In each depicted build scenario, the market will close to new capacity once 3,460 MW is hit, or on June 1, 2021, whichever occurs first.
On September 6, 2019, the NJ Board of Public Utilities (“BPU”) released a memo that detailed Basic Generation Service Provider (“BGS”) load exemptions in 2019. This exempt load dynamic has an impact on market demand through EY 2023 and is further detailed in the analysis.
Data from the New Jersey Office of Clean Energy (“NJOCE”) shows that solar build rates have increased slightly over the past six months in comparison to the past twelve months, increasing by 3.6% in that time frame. With this data from NJOCE and credit data from GATS, SRECTrade estimates that the market is over-supplied by 7.5% for the 2020 Energy Year. Assuming flat load growth and no drastic increase in build rates, the market will likely become under-supplied in 2021 and 2022.
In line with this market dynamic, NJ SREC pricing has seen an upward trend over the past twelve months. The enclosed analysis further details the current standing as well as future scenarios for the NJ SREC market.
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