Vermont adopts Renewable Energy Standard

This summer Vermont energy regulators issued an order implementing a Renewable Energy Standard.  This standard, or RES, requires Vermont electric utilities to procure an increasing share of electricity from renewable sources. 

Under a 2015 law called Act 56 (formerly called bill H.40), the Vermont Legislature directed the Public Service Board to issue an order implementing the RES to take effect on January 1, 2017.  Act 56 set certain rules for the RES, but left other issues to the Board.  Following working group meetings, workshops, and opportunities for written comment, the Board adopted the RES by order dated June 28, 2016.

The RES sets targets for utility procurement of renewable energy, starting at 55% of the electricity sold to customers from renewable sources in 2017, increasing gradually to 75% in 2032.   Of these amounts, at least 1% must come from new, distributed renewable generators, such as net-metering systems, rising to l0% by 2032.

The RES also establishes a category of "energy transformation projects," to encourage utility investment in projects that directly reduce customers' fossil-fuel consumption.  Energy transformation projects might include measures like weatherization, biomass heating, cold-climate heat pumps, demand management, or clean vehicle technologies.  To satisfy this requirement, utilities must demonstrate fossil-fuel savings equivalent to 2% of their annual retail sales (increasing to 12% by 2032) or procure an equal amount of additional renewable generation.  The Board has described the energy transformation project program as the first of its kind in the U.S.

Most states have adopted binding renewable portfolio standards for electricity supply.  Before the enactment of Act 56 and the Board's adoption of the RES, Vermont had renewable goals under its Sustainably Priced Energy Enterprise Development or SPEED program, but no mandatory renewable portfolio standard.

Under the act, the Vermont Public Service Board order adopting the RES will take effect on January 1, 2017.

DONG Energy proposes Massachusetts offshore wind farm

A subsidiary of Danish energy company DONG Energy has proposed an offshore wind development to be located in federal waters off the Massachusetts coast.  The "Bay State Wind" project would be a utility scale offshore wind farm, located 15 miles south of Martha's Vineyard.

Largely owned by the Danish government, DONG is the world’s largest developer of offshore wind projects, reportedly having built over 3,000 megawatts or about a third of all installed offshore wind capacity in the world.  Other branches of the company engage in serving Danish customers, oil and natural gas exploration and production, and thermal power generation. 

Because the Bay State Wind project's site is over the outer continental shelf, it falls under federal jurisdiction for site leasing purposes under subsection 8(p) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.  The wind energy area in question was originally auctioned by the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management in January 2015.  In that January auction, RES America Developments, Inc. provisionally won the rights to Lease OCS-A 0500 (187,523 acres) with a winning bid of $281,285.  BOEM signed the commercial wind energy lease for the site on March 23, 2015, and the lease went into effect on April 1, 2015.

In April 2015, RES agreed to transfer the lease to DONG.  In accordance with BOEM's process for assigning a site lease, BOEM agreed to assign the lease to DONG Energy Massachusetts (U.S.) LLC on June 12.

According to DONG, full development of the Bay State Wind project might entail 1,000 megawatts of generating capacity.  Its lease area is adjacent to the wind energy area offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts won by Deepwater Wind in 2013 in BOEM's first competitive lease sale for offshore wind sites.