(a) Voluntary Renewable Electricity Program
Requirements. The end-user, or VRE participant acting on behalf of the
end-user, must meet the requirements of this section. Generation must not have
an online date or have served load prior to July 1, 2005. Allowance retirement
for purposes of voluntary renewable electricity will begin in 2014 for 2013
generation, and will continue in the same manner for subsequent years.
Allowances will be retired annually from the Voluntary Renewable Electricity
Reserve Account for the preceding year's eligible and approved generation in
order of increasing vintage year until the account has been exhausted. For the
year in which available allowances are exhausted, allowance retirement will be
pro-rated among all eligible and approved generation. Voluntary renewable
electricity must be directly delivered to California. RECs must represent
generation that occurred during the year for which allowance retirement is
requested. RECs shall be retired before the submittal of the request to retire
allowances pursuant to this section.
(1)
Generator Eligibility. Each generator must meet one of these criteria:
(A) Be certified as RPS-eligible by the
California Energy Commission;
(B)
Received an incentive under the California Solar Initiative Program;
or,
(C) Be a solar generation
installation interconnected with the distribution system of a California
EDU.
(b)
Reporting Requirements. The end-user, or the VRE participant acting on behalf
of the end-user, requesting allowance retirement for eligible generation must
meet the following requirements for the period in which allowance retirement is
being requested:
(1) By July 1 of each year,
provide a written request for allowance retirement from the Voluntary Renewable
Electricity Reserve Account and all required documentation for the previous
year's eligible generation or REC purchases. The request must meet the
requirements below:
(A) Report to ARB the
quantity of renewable electricity in MWh, the number of RECs generated during
the previous year and designated for VRE allowance retirement from each
eligible generator, and the total quantity of MWh for all eligible
generators;
(B) Generator
eligibility must be demonstrated by providing to ARB:
1. A California Energy Commission RPS
identification number; or
2.
Documentation from an EDU that demonstrates that an incentive payment for each
generator was received or approved under California's Solar Electric Incentive
Program; or
3. Documentation from
an EDU approving interconnection to the EDU's distribution
system;
(C) If WREGIS
RECs were created for the generation, provide the WREGIS identification number
for each generator and REC retirement report;
(D) If WREGIS RECs were not created for the
generation, provide alternative tracking system data documenting the month and
year of the generation and documentation that the RECs were not used in any
other mandatory or voluntary program;
(E) Contract or settlement data demonstrating
the sale to and purchase of the electricity or RECs associated with the
generation of the electricity to the end-user or entity purchasing on behalf of
the end-user; and
(F) Submit the
following attestations:
1. Submit a signed
attestation to ARB as follows: "I certify under penalty of perjury of the laws
of the State of California that I have not authorized use of, or sold, any
renewable electricity credits or any claims to the emissions, or lack of
emissions, for electricity for which I am seeking ARB allowance retirement, in
any other voluntary or mandatory program."
2. Submit a signed attestation to ARB as
follows: "I understand I am voluntarily participating in the California
Greenhouse Gas Cap-and-Trade Program under title 17, Cal. Code of Regs. article
5, and by doing so, I am now subject to all regulatory requirements and
enforcement mechanisms of this voluntary renewable electricity program and
subject myself to the jurisdiction of California as the exclusive venue to
resolve any and all disputes."
(c) Allowance Retirement. The number of
allowances retired from the Voluntary Renewable Electricity Reserve Account for
a VRE participant in a given year are calculated as follows:
VREretired =
MWhVRE x EFunspecified
Where:
"VREretired" is the number of
allowances to be retired from the Voluntary Renewable Electricity Reserve
Account for the VRE participant, rounded down to the nearest whole ton;
"MWhVRE" is the amount of
voluntary renewable electricity, in MWh, that is generated in the previous year
by the VRE participant, meets the eligibility requirements of this article, and
is approved by ARB; and
"EFunspecified" is the default
CO2e emissions factor for unspecified power, pursuant to
section 95111(b)(1) of
MRR.
ARB shall determine the actual MWh of voluntary
renewable electricity purchases that occurred during the period indicated in
the documentation. ARB shall retire allowances from the Voluntary Renewable
Electricity Reserve Account in an amount up to the number of MT
CO2e represented by actual voluntary renewable
electricity purchases, based on actual MWh purchases and the emissions factor
determined pursuant to this section.
Notes
Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 17, §
95841.1
1. New
section filed 12-13-2011; operative 1-1-2012 pursuant to Government Code
section
11343.4
(Register 2011, No. 50).
2. Change without regulatory effect
amending subsections (b)(1), (b)(1)(C)-(D) and (c) filed 2-15-2012 pursuant to
section 100, title 1, California Code of
Regulations (Register 2012, No. 7).
3. Amendment filed 6-26-2014;
operative 7-1-2014 pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register 2014, No. 26).
4. Amendment filed 9-18-2017; operative
10-1-2017 pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register 2017, No. 38).
5. Amendment of subsections (a) and (b)(1),
new subsection (b)(1)(E), subsection relettering and amendment of newly
designated subsections (b)(1)(F)1.-2. filed 3-29-2019; operative 3-29-2019
pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register 2019, No. 13).
Note: Authority cited: Sections
38510,
38560,
38562,
38570,
38571,
38580,
39600
and
39601,
Health and Safety Code. Reference: Sections
38530,
38560.5,
38564,
38565,
38570
and
39600,
Health and Safety Code.
1. New section
filed 12-13-2011; operative 1-1-2012 pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4
(Register 2011, No. 50).
2. Change without regulatory effect
amending subsections (b)(1), (b)(1)(C)-(D) and (c) filed 2-15-2012 pursuant to
section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations (Register 2012, No.
7).
3. Amendment filed 6-26-2014; operative
7/1/2014 pursuant to
Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register
2014, No. 26).
4. Amendment filed 9-18-2017; operative
10/1/2017
pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register
2017, No. 38).
5. Amendment of subsections (a) and
(b)(1), new subsection (b)(1)(E), subsection relettering and amendment of newly
designated subsections (b)(1)(F)1.-2. filed 3-29-2019; operative
3/29/2019
pursuant to Government Code section
11343.4(b)(3)
(Register
2019, No. 13).