Vermont Statutes Title 30 Sec. 8004
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 30 Sec. 8004
- Commission: means the Public Utility Commission under section 3 of this title. See
- Department: means the Department of Public Service under section 1 of this title, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. See
- Environmental attributes: means the characteristics of a plant that enable the energy it produces to qualify as renewable energy and include any and all benefits of the plant to the environment such as avoided emissions or other impacts to air, water, or soil that may occur through the plant's displacement of a nonrenewable energy source. See
- following: when used by way of reference to a section of the law shall mean the next preceding or following section. See
- provider: means a company engaged in the distribution or sale of electricity directly to the public. See
- Renewable energy: means energy produced using a technology that relies on a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at or below its natural regeneration rate. See
- RES: means the Renewable Energy Standard established under sections 8004 and 8005 of this title. See
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
- Tradeable renewable energy credits: means all of the environmental attributes associated with a single unit of energy generated by a renewable energy source where:
§ 8004. Sales of electric energy; Renewable Energy Standard (RES)
(a) Establishment; requirements. The RES is established. Under this program, a retail electricity provider shall not sell or otherwise provide or offer to sell or provide electricity in the State of Vermont without ownership of sufficient energy produced by renewable energy plants or sufficient tradeable renewable energy credits from plants whose energy is capable of delivery in New England that reflect the required amounts of renewable energy set forth in section 8005 of this title or without support of energy transformation projects in accordance with that section. A retail electricity provider may meet the required amounts of renewable energy through eligible tradeable renewable energy credits that it owns and retires, eligible renewable energy resources with environmental attributes still attached, or a combination of those credits and resources.
(b) Rules. The Commission shall adopt the rules that are necessary to allow the Commission and the Department to implement and supervise further the implementation and maintenance of the RES.
(c) RECS; banking. The Commission shall allow a provider that has met the required amount of renewable energy in a given year, commencing with 2017, to retain tradeable renewable energy credits created or purchased in excess of that amount for application to the provider’s required amount of renewable energy in one of the following three years.
(d) Alternative compliance payment. In lieu of purchasing renewable energy or tradeable renewable energy credits or supporting energy transformation projects to satisfy the requirements of this section and section 8005 of this title, a retail electricity provider in this State may pay to the Vermont Clean Energy Development Fund established under section 8015 of this title an alternative compliance payment at the applicable rate set forth in section 8005.
(e) VPPSA members. In the case of members of the Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, the requirements of this chapter may be met in the aggregate.
(f) Joint efforts. Retail electricity providers may engage in joint efforts to meet one or more categories within the RES. (Added 2003, No. 69, § 1, eff. June 17, 2003; amended 2005, No. 61, § 3; 2005, No. 208 (Adj. Sess.), § 14; 2007, No. 92 (Adj. Sess.), § 21; 2009, No. 45, § 3, eff. May 27, 2009; 2011, No. 47, §§ 18, 20m(a); 2015, No. 56, § 2.)