Colorado Increases its Renewable Energy Standard to 30% by 2020
From our colleague Adam Walters:
In February we blogged about Colorado HB-10 1001, a bill then pending in the Colorado legislature that would increase Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) from 20% to 30% by 2020. The Democrat-sponsored bill was passed by the legislature on March 11 on a party line vote and yesterday it was signed into law by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter with great fanfare.
With the passage of this law Colorado now has one of the most ambitious RES’s in the country, and second only to California’s 30% requirement.
In addition to increasing the State’s RES, the law attempts to assist in job creation in the solar installation industry by placing greater emphasis on distributed generation (DG). For instance, the law requires Colorado utilities to spend 3% of its power purchases on distributed solar installations. The law also allows a utility to develop and own, as part of its rate base, up to 50% of the DG capacity it acquires from power purchase agreements and new construction if the cost is reasonably comparable to current market cost. The Public Utility Commission must also allow utilities the same cost recovery for the construction of new DG systems as allowed for new coal-fired facilities.
Public Service Commission of Utah Investigates Third-Party Power Purchase Agreements For Renewable Energy Generation
On October 12, 2009, the Public Service Commission of Utah ("PSC") joined the ranks of several other states in the west, including Oregon, when it established a docket to investigate whether, and the extent to which, certain third-party arrangements for renewable energy generation are subject to the PSC's jurisdiction. www.psc.utah.gov/utilities/misc/miscindx/0999912indx.html, Pursuant to the notice, the PSC may consider the following issues:
- Whether the third-party is a public utility under Utah law;
- Whether the third-party is a public utility under Utah law when arrangements are entered into primarily as a financing mechanism for distributed renewable energy generation systems whereby a third-party owns the renewable generation equipment, which is installed on a utility customer's premises, there is a long-term contract with the customer to supply a portion of that customer's electricity use, and payments are based on kilowatt-hours;
- Whether the third-party is a public utility under Utah law when (i) there is a single relationship between the third-party owner of the generation and a customer or (ii) there are multiple customers taking power from the same third party;
- Whether the third-party is a public utility under Utah law when arrangements involve the leasing of distributed generation equipment from non-utility lessors to lessees that are also retail customers of utilities.
Comments and/or legal briefs regarding the above issues must be filed with the PSC by November 16, 2009. A technical conference to discuss the specific terms and conditions surrounding third-party financing arrangements and other issues will be held on November 23, 2009, at 1:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., Fourth Floor Hearing Room Room 401, Heber M. Wells State Office Building, 160 East 300 South, Salt Lake City, Utah.
