Who Owns Renewable Energy Certificates? An Exploration of PolicyOptions and Practice

Abstract

Renewable energy certificates (RECs) represent the bundle of information that describes the characteristics of renewable electricity generation, and may be (and increasingly are) sold separately from the underlying electricity itself. RECs are a relatively new phenomenon, emerging as a tradable commodity in voluntary markets in the late 1990s, and gaining strength as a means of compliance with various state policy requirements affecting renewable generation in the early 2000s (Holt and Bird 2005). Twenty states and Washington, D.C. now have mandatory renewables portfolio standard (RPS) obligations, and most of these may be satisfied by owning and retiring RECs. Many states also have fuel source and emissions disclosure requirements, for which RECs are useful. Even where state policy does not allow unbundled and fully tradable RECs to meet these requirements, RECs may still be used as an accounting and verification tool (REC tracking systems are in place or under development in many regions of the U.S.). These applications, plus REC trading activity in support of voluntary green claims, give rise to potential ''double counting'' to the extent that the purchaser of the RECs and the purchaser of the underlying electricity both make claims to the renewable energy attributes of the facility in question (Hamrin and Wingate 2003). When renewable electricity is sold and purchased, an important question therefore arises: ''Who owns the RECs created by the generation of renewable energy?'' In voluntary transactions, most agree that the question of REC ownership can and should be negotiated between the buyer and the seller privately, and should be clearly established by contract. Claims about purchasing renewable energy should only be made if REC ownership can be documented. In many other cases, however, renewable energy transactions are either mandated or encouraged through state or federal policy. In these cases, the issue of REC ownership must often be answered by legislative or regulatory authorities. Some renewable energy contracts pre-date the existence of RECs, however, and in these cases the disposition of RECs is often unclear. Similarly, because of the recent appearance of RECs, legislation and regulation mandating the purchase of renewable energy has sometimes been silent on the disposition of the RECs associated with that generation. The resulting uncertainty in REC ownership has hindered the development of robust REC markets and has, in some cases, led to contention between buyers and sellers of renewable generation. The purpose of this report is to provide information and insight to state policy-makers, utility regulators, and others about different approaches to clarifying the ownership of RECs. We focus exclusively on three distinct areas in which REC ownership issues have arisen: (1) Qualifying Facilities (QFs) that sell their generation under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) of 1978; (2) Customer-owned generation that benefits from state net metering rules; and (3) Generation facilities that receive financial incentives from state or utility funds. This is a survey report. It reviews how both the federal government and states have addressed these issues to date, and highlights the arguments that have been raised for different REC ownership dispositions. Our aim is to describe the arguments on each side, and the context for the debates that are occurring. We do not, in this report, provide a list of policy recommendations for how policymakers should be addressing these issues.

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