| State: |
North Dakota |
| Incentive Type: |
Renewables Portfolio Standard |
| Eligible Renewable/Other Technologies: |
Solar Thermal Electric, Photovoltaics, Landfill Gas, Wind, Biomass, Hydroelectric, Geothermal Electric, Hydrogen, Electricity from Waste Heat, Anaerobic Digestion |
| Applicable Sectors: |
Municipal Utility, Investor-Owned Utility, Rural Electric Cooperative |
| Standard: | Goal: 10% by 2015 |
| Technology Minimum: | No |
| Credit Trading: | Yes |
In March 2007, the North Dakota enacted legislation (H.B. 1506) establishing an
objective that 10% of all retail electricity sold in the state be obtained from renewable energy and recycled energy by 2015. The objective must be measured by qualifying megawatt-hours (MWh) delivered at retail or by credits purchased and retired to offset non-qualifying retail sales. This objective is voluntary; there is no penalty or sanction for a retail provider of electricity that fails to meet the objective. Municipal utilities and electric cooperatives that receive wholesale electricity through a municipal power agency or generation and transmission cooperative may aggregate their renewable and recycled energy objective resources to meet the objective.
Eligible resources include electricity produced by solar, wind, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, hydrogen derived from another eligible resource, and recycled energy systems producing electricity from currently unused waste heat resulting from combustion or other processes. (The term "recycled energy system" does not include waste heat captured from any system designed primarily to generate electricity.) Hydroelectric facilities must have an in-service date of January 1, 2007, or later, or qualify as new hydroelectric generation obtained from repowering or efficiency improvements to existing facilities.*
In order to qualify for renewable electricity and recycled energy objective credits, a generating source must meet the requirements of the North Dakota Public Service Commission's (PSC) rules for tracking, recording and verifying renewable energy certificates (RECs). RECs do not need to be acquired from an in-state facility. There are special conditions for hydroelectric facilities. Electricity generation applied to the renewable energy and recycled energy objective, as well as certificate purchases and certificate retirements, must be independently verified through a third-party credit-tracking system approved by the PSC. In June 2008, the PSC issued an order designating the
Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) for this purpose.
Before using new renewable and recycled energy after August 1, 2007, to meet the objective, each retail provider or its generation supplier was required to make an economic evaluation to determine if the use of new renewable and recycled energy is cost-effective considering other electricity alternatives. After evaluating the renewable and recycled energy objective and economic evaluation, the retail provider or its generation supplier may use the electricity alternative that best meets its resource or customer needs.
* When calculating the amount of electricity necessary to meet the objective, a utility may deduct from its baseline of total retail sales the proportion of electricity obtained from hydroelectric facilities with an in-service date before January 1, 2007.
