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1 H.320
2 Introduced by Representative Elder of Starksboro
3 Referred to Committee on
4 Date:
5 Subject: Public service; energy; renewable energy; Renewable Energy
6 Standard
7 Statement of purpose of bill as introduced: This bill proposes to update the
8 amount of total renewable energy required pursuant to the Renewable Energy
9 Standard.
10 An act relating to the Renewable Energy Standard
11 It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont:
12 Sec. 1. FINDINGS
13 The General Assembly finds:
14 (1) Recent electricity rate hikes across New England have been driven
15 by high fossil fuel prices. Vermont ratepayers have experienced comparatively
16 lower electricity rate increases in large part because the State adopted the
17 Renewable Energy Standard (RES) in 2015 and has thereby reduced the State’s
18 use of fossil fuels for electricity generation. It is in the interest of the persons
19 of the State to eliminate the use of fossil fuel electricity generation from the
20 State’s electricity sector.
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1 (2) All of the legislative findings made in 2022 Acts and Resolves No.
2 154, Sec. 1, an act relating to environmental justice in Vermont, remain true
3 and are incorporated by reference here.
4 (3) Vermont must equitably reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the
5 State’s electricity sector. It is the State’s responsibility to pursue
6 environmental justice for its residents and to ensure that its agencies do not
7 contribute to unfair distribution of environmental benefits to or environmental
8 burdens on low-income; limited-English proficient; and Black, Indigenous, and
9 Persons of Color (BIPOC) communities. Relying on electricity from fossil
10 fuel and other polluting generation sources places undue burdens on
11 historically marginalized persons and communities in Vermont and outside
12 Vermont.
13 (4) All of the legislative findings made in 2020 Acts and Resolves No.
14 153, Sec. 2, the Vermont Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020, remain true
15 and are incorporated by reference here.
16 (5) Under the Vermont Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020 and 10
17 V.S.A. § 578, Vermont has a legal obligation to reduce greenhouse gas
18 emissions to specific levels by 2025, 2030, and 2050.
19 (6) To meet the greenhouse gas emission reductions required by the
20 Vermont Global Warming Solutions Act of 2020, Vermont must reduce
21 greenhouse gas emissions from the State’s electricity sector to facilitate clean VT LEG #367005 v.3
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1 transitions in the State’s thermal and transportation sectors, which depend upon
2 abundant renewable electricity.
3 Sec. 2. 30 V.S.A. § 8001 is amended to read:
4 § 8001. RENEWABLE ENERGY GOALS
5 (a) The General Assembly finds it in the interest of the people persons of
6 the State to promote the State energy policy established in section 202a of this
7 title by:
8 (1) Achieving the greenhouse gas emission reduction requirements of 10
9 V.S.A. § 578 by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the State’s electricity
10 sector and facilitating clean transitions in the State’s thermal and transportation
11 sectors, which depend upon abundant renewable electricity.
12 (2) Equitably reducing greenhouse gas emissions within the State’s
13 electricity sector by providing just transitions consistent with the findings
14 made in 2022 Acts and Resolves No. 154, Sec. 1, an act relating to
15 environmental justice in Vermont, and 3 V.S.A. chapter 72, to Vermonters
16 living with low-income and moderate-income, who have limited English
17 proficiency, and who are Black, Indigenous, and Persons of Color.
18 (3) Balancing the benefits, lifetime costs, and rates of the State’s overall
19 energy portfolio, taking into account the social cost of carbon for all
20 greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of their carbon dioxide equivalent
21 (CO2e), to ensure that to the greatest extent possible the economic benefits of
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1 renewable energy in the State flow to the Vermont economy in general, and to
2 the rate-paying citizens of the State in particular.
3 (2)(4) Supporting development of renewable energy that uses natural
4 resources efficiently and related planned energy industries in Vermont, and the
5 jobs and economic benefits associated with such development, while retaining
6 and supporting existing renewable energy infrastructure.
7 (3)(5) Providing an incentive for the State’s retail electricity providers to
8 enter into affordable, long-term, stably priced renewable energy contracts that
9 mitigate market price fluctuation for Vermonters.
10 (4)(6) Developing viable markets for renewable energy and energy
11 efficiency projects.
12 (5)(7) Protecting and promoting air and water quality in the State and
13 region through the displacement of those fuels, including fossil fuels, which
14 are known to emit or discharge pollutants.
15 (6)(8) Contributing to reductions in global climate change and
16 anticipating the impacts on the State’s economy that might be caused by
17 federal regulation designed to attain those reductions.
18 (7)(9) Providing support and incentives to locate renewable energy
19 plants of small and moderate size in a manner that is distributed across the
20 State’s electric grid, including locating such plants in areas that will provide VT LEG #367005 v.3
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1 benefit to the operation and management of that grid through such means as
2 reducing line losses and addressing transmission and distribution constraints.
3 (8)(10) Promoting the inclusion, in Vermont’s electric supply portfolio,
4 of renewable energy plants that are diverse in plant capacity and type of
5 renewable energy technology.
6 ***
7 Sec. 3. 30 V.S.A. § 8002 is amended to read:
8 § 8002. DEFINITIONS
9 As used in this chapter:
10 (1) “Commission” means the Public Utility Commission under section 3
11 of this title.
12 (2) “Commissioned” or “commissioning” means the first time a plant is
13 put into operation following initial construction or modernization if the costs of
14 modernization are at least 50 percent of the costs that would be required to
15 build a new plant, including all buildings and structures technically required
16 for the new plant’s operation. However, these terms shall not include activities
17 necessary to establish operational readiness of a plant.
18 (3) “Community energy system” means a grid-connected plant that
19 serves multiple customers, the majority, by capacity, of whom offtake a share
20 not greater than 15 kW.
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1 (3)(4) “CPI” means the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers,
2 designated as “CPI-U,” in the northeast region, as published by the U.S.
3 Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
4 (4)(5) “Customer” means a retail electric consumer.
5 (5)(6) “Department” means the Department of Public Service under
6 section 1 of this title, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
7 (6)(7) “Energy conversion efficiency” means the effective use of energy
8 and heat from a combustion process.
9 (7)(8) “Environmental attributes” means the characteristics of a plant
10 that enable the energy it produces to qualify as renewable energy and include
11 any and all benefits of the plant to the environment such as avoided emissions
12 or other impacts to air, water, or soil that may occur through the plant’s
13 displacement of a nonrenewable energy source.
14 (8)(9) “Existing renewable energy” means renewable energy produced
15 by a plant that came into service prior to or on June 30, 2015 January 1, 2010.
16 (9)(10) “Greenhouse gas reduction credits” shall be as defined in section
17 8006a of this title.
18 (10)(11) “Group net metering system” means a net metering system
19 serving more than one customer, or a single customer with multiple electric
20 meters, located within the service area of the same retail electricity provider.
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1 districts, fire districts, villages, school districts, and towns, may constitute a
2 group net metering system. A union or district school facility may be
3 considered in the same group net metering system with buildings of its
4 member schools that are located within the service area of the same retail
5 electricity provider.
6 (11)(12) “kW” means kilowatt or kilowatts (AC).
7 (12)(13) “kWh” means kW hour or hours.
8 (13)(14) “MW” means megawatt or megawatts (AC).
9 (14)(15) “MWH” means MW hour or hours.
10 (15)(16) “Net metering” means measuring the difference between the
11 electricity supplied to a customer and the electricity fed back by the customer’s
12 net metering system during the customer’s billing period:
13 ***
14 (16)(17) “Net metering system” means a plant for generation of
15 electricity that:
16 (A) is of no more than 500 kW capacity;
17 (B) operates in parallel with facilities of the electric distribution
18 system;
19 (C) is intended primarily to offset the customer’s own electricity
20 requirements and does not primarily supply electricity to electric vehicle
21 supply equipment, as defined in section 201 of this title, for the resale of
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1 electricity to the public by the kWh or for other retail sales to the public,
2 including those based in whole or in part on a flat fee per charging session or a
3 time-based fee for occupying a parking space while using electric vehicle
4 supply equipment; and
5 (D)(i) employs a renewable energy source; or
6 (ii) is a qualified micro-combined heat and power system of 20
7 kW or fewer that meets the definition of combined heat and power in
8 subsection 8015(b) of this title and uses any fuel source that meets air quality
9 standards; and
10 (E) for a plant commissioned after January 1, 2025, generates energy
11 that will be used on the same site where it is located.
12 ***
13 (17)(18) “New renewable energy” means renewable energy produced by
14 a specific and identifiable plant coming into service after June 30, 2015
15 January 1, 2010 and physically located within the New England Independent
16 System Operator Control Area (ISO-NE Control Area).
17 (A) Energy from within a system of generating plants that includes
18 renewable energy shall not constitute new renewable energy, regardless of
19 whether the system includes specific plants that came or come into service
20 after June 30, 2015 January 1, 2010.
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1 (B) “New renewable energy” also may include the additional energy
2 from an existing renewable energy plant retrofitted with advanced technologies
3 or otherwise operated, modified, or expanded to increase the kWh output of the
4 plant in excess of an historical baseline established by calculating the average
5 output of that plant for the 10-year period that ended June 30, 2015 January 1,
6 2010. If the production of new renewable energy through changes in
7 operations, modification, or expansion involves combustion of the resource,
8 the system also must result in an incrementally higher level of energy
9 conversion efficiency or significantly reduced emissions.
10 (18)(19) “Plant” means an independent technical facility that generates
11 electricity from renewable energy. A group of facilities, such as wind turbines,
12 shall be considered one plant if the group is part of the same project and uses
13 common equipment and infrastructure such as roads, control facilities, and
14 connections to the electric grid. Common ownership, contiguity in time of
15 construction, and proximity of facilities to each other shall be relevant to
16 determining whether a group of facilities is part of the same project.
17 (19)(20) “Plant capacity” means the rated electrical nameplate for a
18 plant, except that, in the case of a solar energy plant, the term shall mean the
19 aggregate AC nameplate capacity of all inverters used to convert the plant’s
20 output to AC power.
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1 (20)(21) “Plant owner” means a person who has the right to sell
2 electricity generated by a plant.
3 (21)(22) “Renewable energy” means energy produced using a
4 technology that relies on a resource that is being consumed at a harvest rate at
5 or below its natural regeneration rate.
6 ***
7 (22)(23)(A) “Renewable pricing” shall mean an optional service
8 provided or contracted for by an electric company:
9 ***
10 (23)(24) “Retail electricity provider” or “provider” means a company
11 engaged in the distribution or sale of electricity directly to the public.
12 (24)(25) “Standard Offer Facilitator” means an entity appointed by the
13 Commission pursuant to subsection 8005a(a) of this title.
14 (25) [Repealed.]
15 (26) “Tradeable renewable energy credits” means all of the
16 environmental attributes associated with a single unit of energy generated by a
17 renewable energy source where:
18 (A) those attributes are transferred or recorded separately from that
19 unit of energy;
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1 (B) the party claiming ownership of the tradeable renewable energy
2 credits has acquired the exclusive legal ownership of all, and not less than all,
3 the environmental attributes associated with that unit of energy; and
4 (C) exclusive legal ownership can be verified through an auditable
5 contract path or pursuant to the system established or authorized by the
6 Commission or any program for tracking and verification of the ownership of
7 environmental attributes of energy legally recognized in any state and
8 approved by the Commission; and
9 (D) tradeable renewable energy credits shall not include attributes
10 transferred or recorded separately from the energy if that energy is from a plant
11 physically outside the ISO-NE Control Area.
12 (27) “Vermont composite electric utility system” means the combined
13 generation, transmission, and distribution resources along with the combined
14 retail load requirements of the Vermont retail electricity providers.
15 ***
16 Sec. 4. 30 V.S.A. § 8004 is amended to read:
17 § 8004. SALES OF ELECTRIC ENERGY; RENEWABLE ENERGY
18 STANDARD (RES)
19 (a) Establishment; requirements. The RES is established. Under this
20 program, a retail electricity provider shall not sell or otherwise provide or offer
21 to sell or provide electricity in the State of Vermont without ownership of
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1 sufficient energy produced by renewable energy plants or sufficient tradeable
2 renewable energy credits from plants whose energy is capable of delivery in
3 New England that reflect the required am