Wash. Admin. Code § 480-100-650 - Reporting and compliance

(1) Clean energy compliance report. Unless otherwise ordered by the commission, each electric utility must file a clean energy compliance report with the commission by July 1, 2026, and at least every four years thereafter. The report must:

(a) Demonstrate whether and how the utility met its interim tar-gets.

(b) Demonstrate whether and how the utility met its specific tar-gets.

(c) Demonstrate whether and how the specific actions the utility took made progress toward meeting the clean energy transformation standards at the lowest reasonable cost.

(d) Demonstrate whether and how the utility met its statutory obligations under RCW 19.405.040(1) and 19.405.050(1) through the acquisition of the electricity and associated RECs or nonpower attributes. This requires the utility to demonstrate that the electricity the utility reports for compliance is:

(i) From a generating facility located within the utility's service area or balancing authority area; or

(ii) Acquired by the utility at one of the following points of delivery:

(A) The transmission or distribution system of an electric utility;

(B) The transmission system of the Bonneville Power Administration;

(C) The transmission system of any entity that is a participant in a centralized organized market located in the Western Interconnection in which the electric utility is a participant; or

(D) Another point of delivery designated by the electric utility for the purpose of subsequent delivery to the electric utility.

(e) Demonstrate whether and how the specific actions the utility took are consistent with the requirements in WAC 480-100-610(4)(c) including, but not limited to:

(i) Providing updated customer benefit indicator values;

(ii) An analysis that the distribution of benefits and reductions of burdens have accrued or will reasonably accrue to intended customers, including highly impacted communities and vulnerable populations.

(f) Provide a description of the utility's equity advisory group process, customer engagement and outcomes, and how the utility's efforts are consistent with the requirements in WAC 480-100-655 for the development or update of customer benefit indicators related to WAC 480-100-610(4)(c).

(g) Include the actual incremental cost of compliance as required in WAC 480-100-660(5).

(h) Include all of the information found in the annual progress report as described in subsection (4) of this section for the fourth year of the CEIP.

(i) Include a summary of the data in the annual progress reports described in subsection (4) of this section.

(j) Document the use of any alternative compliance options as described in RCW 19.405.040(1)(b), or any request for a temporary exemption per RCW 19.405.090(3).

(k) Include a description of the public participation opportunities the utility provided and the feedback the utility received during the implementation period, including whether and how public participation influenced the utility's decisions and actions.

(l) Include the data input files made available to the commission in native format and in an easily accessible format as an appendix.

(2) Clean energy compliance report review process.

(a) Interested persons may file written comments with the commission regarding the utility's clean energy compliance report within 60 days of the utility's filing unless the commission states otherwise.

(b) The commission may review clean energy compliance reports through the commission's open public meeting process, as described in chapter 480-07 WAC.

(c) After completing its review of the utility's clean energy compliance report, the commission will determine whether the utility met its specific and interim targets, and whether the utility made sufficient progress toward meeting the clean energy transformation standards.

(3) Annual clean energy progress reports. On or before July 1st of each year beginning in 2023, other than in a year in which the utility files a clean energy compliance report, the utility must file with the commission, in the same docket as its most recently filed CEIP, an informational annual clean energy progress report regarding its progress in meeting its targets during the preceding year. The annual clean energy progress report must include, but is not limited to:

(a) Beginning July 1, 2027, and each year thereafter, an attestation for the previous calendar year that the utility did not use any coal-fired resource as defined in this chapter to serve Washington retail electric customer load.

(b) Conservation achievement in megawatts, first-year megawatt-hour savings, and projected cumulative lifetime megawatt-hour savings.

(c) Demand response program achievement and demand response capability in megawatts and megawatt hours.

(d) Renewable resource capacity in megawatts, and renewable energy usage in megawatt hours and as a percentage of electricity supplied by renewable resources.

(e) All renewable energy credits and the program or obligation for which they were used (e.g., voluntary renewable programs, renewable portfolio standard, clean energy transformation standards).

(f) Verification and documentation of the retirement of renewable energy credits for all electricity from renewable resources used to comply with the requirements of RCW 19.405.040, 19.405.050, a specific target, or an interim target, except for electricity purchased from Bonneville Power Administration, which may be used to comply with these requirements without a renewable energy credit until January 1, 2029, as long as the nonpower attributes of the renewable energy are tracked through contract language.

(g) Nonemitting resource capacity in megawatts, and nonemitting energy usage in megawatt hours and as a percentage of total electricity supplied by nonemitting energy.

(h) The utility's greenhouse gas content calculation pursuant to RCW 19.405.070.

(i) An electronic link to the utility's most recently filed fuel mix disclosure report as required by RCW 19.29A.140.

(j) Total greenhouse gas emissions in metric tons of CO₂e.

(k) Demonstration of ownership of nonpower attributes for nonemitting generation using attestations of ownership and transfer by properly authorized representatives of the generating facility, all intermediate owners of the nonemitting electric generation, and an appropriate company executive of the utility; the utility may not transfer ownership of the nonpower attributes after claiming them in any compliance report.

(l) Other information the company agreed to or was ordered to report in the most recently approved CEIP or biennial CEIP update.

(4) Data and contract reporting. Each utility must file its annual clean energy progress report based on an analysis that identifies and considers the source and characteristics of the electricity a utility claims to meet compliance obligations under WAC 480-100-610, including electricity that is produced, purchased, sold, or exchanged.

(a) Unless otherwise ordered by the commission, the analysis and supporting data provided in the filing must include data in an hourly format for:

(i) Total Washington retail sales.

(ii) Retail sales for customers participating in a voluntary renewable energy purchase program in alignment with RCW 19.405.020(36)(b).

(iii) Total electricity production for all renewable and nonemitting generation owned, contracted, or controlled by the utility.

(iv) Generation from qualifying facilities as described in RCW 19.405.020(36)(a).

(v) All electricity sold or transferred for all bundled sales of electricity from renewable and nonemitting sources. For the purposes of this subsection, bundled electricity is electricity that is sold with all its nonpower attributes in the same transaction.

(vi) All electricity sales in which the electricity was sold by that utility in a wholesale market sale without its associated nonpower attributes.

(b) Unless otherwise ordered by the commission, the utility must include in its filing the following:

(i) Total monthly megawatt-hours of sales, purchases, and exchanges by counter party of electricity sales in which the electricity was sold by that utility in a wholesale market sale without its associated nonpower attributes. Any contract in which the utility sells electricity in a wholesale market sale without its associated nonpower attributes must include terms stating the seller is not transferring any of the nonpower attributes and the buyer may not represent in any form that the electricity has any nonpower attributes associated with it and that the buyer must include such provision in any sale of the electricity in any subsequent sale it makes.

(ii) Total monthly megawatt-hours of sales, purchases, and exchanges of bundled electricity from renewable or nonemitting generation. For the purposes of this subsection, bundled electricity is electricity that is sold with all of its nonpower attributes in the same transaction.

(iii) All purchase contracts longer than one month that source the electricity delivered from coal fueled generation.

(iv) Beginning January 1, 2026, all existing or new purchase contracts longer than one month with documentation that none of the electricity delivered is sourced from coal fueled generation.

(v) Any data provided to the Western power pool's resource adequacy program or its successor.

(c) A utility may use an unbundled REC as an alternative compliance option, as provided in RCW 19.405.040(1)(b), only if the utility demonstrates that there is no double counting of any nonpower attribute associated with that REC. This subsection sets only the minimum requirements necessary to demonstrate that no double counting has occurred. The commission may require the utility to produce other evidence or take specific actions as the commission determines necessary to ensure that there is no double counting of nonpower attributes.

(i) Except as provided in (c)(iii) of this subsection, a utility may use an unbundled REC for alternative compliance only if the utility demonstrates:

(A) The associated electricity was sold, delivered, or transferred without fuel sources or nonpower attributes and under a contract or transaction term expressly stating the fuel source or nonpower attributes are not included; and

(B) The associated electricity was not delivered, reported, or claimed as a zero-emission specified source or assigned the emissions rate of the renewable generating facility under a greenhouse gas (GHG) program.

(ii) A utility's demonstration under this section may be met by documentation that the entity providing the unbundled REC:

(A) Provides contract, confirmation, or other transaction terms that comply with the requirements of (c)(i)(A) and (B) of this subsection;

(B) Was a party to or otherwise has knowledge of the transaction in which the associated electricity was sold or transferred and attests to (c)(i)(A) and (B) of this subsection; or

(C) Obtained the unbundled REC from an entity that attests that it and all previous owners of the REC transferred the REC using transaction terms complying with the requirements of (c)(ii)(A) or (B) of this subsection.

(iii) To claim and retire an unbundled REC for alternative compliance where the Washington-eligible RECs were created by renewable electricity marketed by the Bonneville Power Administration a utility must demonstrate the REC was not associated with electricity from a system sale from the Bonneville Power Administration directly into a state with a GHG program and to an entity regulated by the state greenhouse gas program. The RECs are calculated based on the same vintage year as the year in which the electricity was imported to the state with the greenhouse gas program.

(iv) For the purposes of (c) of this subsection, "greenhouse gas program" includes any governmental program outside of Washington that caps or limits greenhouse gas emissions or requires the purchase, surrender, or retirement of greenhouse gas allowances if the scope of the greenhouse gas program includes electricity imported from outside the governmental jurisdiction and does not require the retirement of RECs for such imported electricity.

(d) For the purposes of reporting and compliance, the storage of electricity has the following impacts:

(i) The eligibility of renewable or nonemitting electricity is not affected by the use of storage resources.

(ii) Except for storage resources located on the customer side of a retail meter, any electrical consumption or loss resulting from the charging, holding, and discharging of storage resources is not considered retail electric load as defined in RCW 19.405.020(36).

(iii) Any electrical consumption or loss resulting from the charging, holding, and discharging of storage resources located on the customer side of a retail meter is considered retail electric load for the purpose of compliance with chapter 19.405 RCW.

(5) Commission staff information requests. Nothing in this rule affects the utility's obligation to provide any additional information or data requested by commission staff.

Notes

Wash. Admin. Code § 480-100-650

Adopted by WSR 21-02-022, Filed 12/28/2020, effective 12/31/2020 Amended by WSR 22-14-055, Filed 6/29/2022, effective 7/1/2022

Statutory Authority: RCW 80.01.040, 80.04.160, and chapters 80.28, 19.280, and 19.405 RCW. WSR 2102-022 (Dockets UE-191023 and UE-190698, General Order 601), § 480-100-650, filed 12/28/20, effective 12/31/20.