Today, the MA DOER announced the 2013 compliance year (January 1 – December 31, 2013) Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) requirement. Massachusetts’ SREC requirement is set each year by a formula that takes into consideration the current year SREC obligation plus the projected SREC generation for the current year less the SRECs generated in prior years multiplied by 1.3. Additional adjustments are then made for prior year’s Alternative Compliance Payment (ACP) volume, banked SREC volume, and DOER Credit Clearinghouse auction volume. The detailed formula for 2013 is as follows:
Total Compliance Obligation 2013 = Total Compliance Obligation 2012 + [Total SRECs Generated (projected) 2012 – SRECs Generated (actual) 2011] x 1.3 – ACP Volume 2011 + Banked Volume 2011 + Auction Volume 2011
MA2013 Compliance Obligation
The MA2013 SREC requirement has been set at 135,495 SRECs. This figure does not take into consideration exempt load based on the TransCanada settlement reached during the first year of the MA SREC market. In the calculation, the DOER provided the effective reduction in SREC Demand for 2013 at 4,784. This means that, under the announced 2013 requirement, the actual number of SRECs needed to be purchased under the 2013 obligation will be equal to 135,495 less 4,784; 130,711 SRECs.
The 2013 Requirement Might Increase
In coordination with its announcement, the DOER also stated its intention to begin a rulemaking process to address the following:
1) Formally insert the 10 Year Solar ACP schedule into regulation;
2) Adjust the formula above to remove the term that subtracts “ACP Volume” from prior years.
The DOER stated its intention to adjust the formula would retroactively apply to the 2013 SREC requirement. The removal of this term from the formula would increase the SREC requirement from 135,495 to 189,297 SRECs required in 2013. Taking into consideration the effective reduction of 4,784, that would put the net 2013 requirement at 184,513.
The table below demonstrates the current formula requirement vs. the proposed formula requirement:
The DOER noted their plans to begin the rulemaking process in September 2012. The DOER welcomes any comments on the announcement prior to beginning the process. Comments can be sent to DOER.SREC@state.ma.us by 5:00pm on September 14th.