Design issues for the Massachusetts Renewables Portfolio Standard

Conference · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1999

OSTI ID:20050746

Bolgen, N; Canter, L; Sacks, I

The paper describes the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) established under the Massachusetts Electric Utility Restructuring Act of 1997. The paper examines a range of issues that must be resolved to implement the standard. Chief among these is the choice of an accounting method for monitoring compliance with the RPS. The paper examines two options. The first separates attributes, such as fuel resource or emissions, from the electricity commodity through the use of tradable credits (tags). The alternative approach keeps the attributes and commodity coupled and tracks the resource mix along the path of power purchase contracts and spot market purchases. The paper examines other RPS issues, including: eligibility, applicability to default electricity service, applicability on a company or product basis, design issues, and administration issues.

• Research Organization: Div. of Energy Resources, Boston, MA (US)
• OSTI ID: 20050746
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
DEREGULATION
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
ENERGY SOURCE DEVELOPMENT
IMPLEMENTATION
MASSACHUSETTS
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
STANDARDS