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The Business Council supports A.6114-C/S.3872-C. The bill would develop a generation attribute tracking system for New York State. Pursuant to this legislation a tradable instruments will be tracked and developed which can be used to meet voluntary renewable energy targets as well as to meet compliance requirements for renewable energy policies. The generation attribute certificate will indicate the generation of one megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity from an eligible source of renewable power. Each certificate will denotes the underlying generation source, location of generation, and year of generation (a.k.a. “vintage”).
Generation attribute tracking systems have been developed in a majority of U.S. states and the District of Columbia intended to foster the development of trading regimes, the United States currently does not have a single, unified market.
A generation attribute tracking system will allow the attributes to be bought and sold independently of the underlying energy. Generation attributes have also been developed in part to catalyze renewable energy generation development by monetizing the environmental benefits inherent in such generation. They can provide renewable energy developers with an additional revenue stream and increase the finance ability of renewable energy projects.
Generation attribute tracking was originally proposed in 1996 as an accounting or verification mechanism for required disclosure of the fuel sources of generation in retail electricity products. It was suggested that by unbundling the resource attributes from the associated electricity, the attributes could be traded more efficiently.
The development of the generation attribute tracking system will benefit consumers, as they will be able to obtain independent verification of the attributes. The development of the generation attribute tracking system should not be costly, and will not affect ratepayers adversely.
For these reasons, The Business Council urges passage of A.6114-C/S.3872-C.