|
|
|
|
|
PUC Issues Ruling On REC Eligibility For Retail Supplier RPS Compliance
The following story is brought free of charge to readers by VertexOne, the exclusive EDI provider of EnergyChoiceMatters.com
The Maine PUC issued an advisory ruling concerning the use of RECs for RPS compliance when such RECs were generated by a facility prior to the facility's RPS certification by the PUC, and the facility later became RPS certified by the PUC
Specifically, the PUC ruled that, "Chapter 311 of the Commission’s Rules does not permit a competitive electricity provider to use the GIS certificates of a Class I or Class IA resource to satisfy the requirement of this chapter if those GIS certificates are from a date prior to the date the Commission certified the Class I or Class IA resource."
The PUC noted that Section 3(C) of Chapter 311 states: "A generation facility may not be used to satisfy the Class I or Class IA requirements of this section unless the Commission certifies the generation facility as a Class I or Class IA resource."
The PUC noted that NextEra Energy Marketing, LLC (NEM) and NextEra Energy Services Maine, LLC (NES Maine) (collectively referred to as NextEra) had jointly requested an advisory ruling concerning the matter. As summarized by the PUC, in the request for advisory ruling, NextEra states that NEM and NES Maine purchased two separate quantities of RECs from a facility that, at the time the RECs were generated, was not certified as a Class I/IA eligible facility.
NextEra requested an Advisory Ruling as to whether the Maine PUC will accept all of the purchased RECs for compliance with NextEra’s obligations under sections 3(A) and 3(B) of Chapter 311. In summarizing NextEra's request, the PUC stated that the relevant facility (whose identity was redacted in NextEra's petition) marketed all of its RECs for the 2024 year as Class I/IA eligible. However, the RECs the facility marketed as Class I/IA compliant were produced prior to the PUC's certification of the facility. While they were all produced prior to the Commission’s certification of the generation facility, a subset of those earlier produced RECs were recorded in the NEPOOL GIS as ME Class I/IA eligible.
The PUC said, "The primary issue is whether the Commission interprets its rule to require a facility to be Commission-certified as a Class I/IA facility before it may market its RECs as eligible to fulfill the Class I/IA requirements for competitive electricity and standard offer providers. Chapter 311 clearly states that a generation facility may not be used to satisfy the Class I/IA requirements unless the Commission certifies that facility. The rule is silent about retroactive certification."
The PUC said, "The Commission concludes that in most instances the generation produced by a facility before the Commission certifies it as a Class I/IA resource is not eligible to satisfy a supplier’s RPS obligations associated with load served prior to the facility’s certification."
The PUC stated, however, that, "The Commission may, in a future rulemaking, revisit this question and consider whether there are circumstances when retroactive certification would be appropriate."
"Such consideration would not affect the outcome in this case, as the information provided by NextEra indicates that the generation facility did not meet the criteria for Class I/IA certification until the end of calendar year 2024," the PUC said
"Therefore, the RECs produced prior to the facility’s certification are not eligible to satisfy NextEra’s obligations under sections 3(A) and 3(B) of Chapter 311," the PUC said
Docket 2025-00199
ADVERTISEMENT Copyright 2025 EnergyChoiceMatters.com. Unauthorized copying, retransmission, or republication
prohibited. You are not permitted to copy any work or text of EnergyChoiceMatters.com without the separate and express written consent of EnergyChoiceMatters.com
October 29, 2025
Email This Story
Copyright 2025 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
NEW Jobs on RetailEnergyJobs.com:
• NEW -- Account Executive (Commercial Retail Energy)
|
|
|
|
|