On Friday, August 30th, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) announced the final 2020 SREC-I and SREC-II Compliance Obligations and Minimum Standards. This announcement follows the results of the SREC-I and SREC-II Solar Credit Clearinghouse Auctions. The final announcement differs only slightly from the preliminary announcement in July.
Solar Carve-out (SREC-I)
The DOER has determined that the Final 2020 Compliance Obligation for the SREC-I program will be 748,584 MWh and that the Minimum Standard will be 1.6116%. The 2020 Minimum Standard for load under contracts signed before June 28, 2013 will be 0.9867%. The Determination of the CY 2020 Total Compliance Obligation and Minimum Standard, published by the DOER, outlines how this Minimum Standard was calculated. Both Minimum Standards are slightly lower than their preliminary counterparts, as a result of the updated Solar PV Capacity Factor used to estimate production.
Solar Carve-out II (SREC-II)
The DOER has also calculated the Final 2020 Compliance Obligation and Minimum Standard for the SREC-II program, which are 1,023,737 MWh and 2.2040%, respectively.
In addition, the DOER calculated the 2020 SREC-II Compliance Obligation and Minimum Standard for load under contracts signed after May 8, 2016 as 1,765,527 MWh and 3.8011%, respectively. The final SREC-II baseline Compliance Obligation and Minimum Standard are slightly lower than their preliminary counterparts, primarily due to two reasons:
- A reduction in the average capacity factor applied to estimated generation from 13.35% to 13.08% (using nine years of Massachusetts Production Tracking System production data)
- An improvement to the SREC-II production estimation formula to account for the loss of partial MWhs left over after a reporting period, since these partial MWhs do not result in the creation of partial SREC-IIs
