2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE TWELVE - Conservation (§§ 1-16 — 8162) › Subtitle 8 - Environment II (§§ 8001 — 8162) › Chapter 506 - Public Policy on Energy Diversification by Means of Sustainable and Alternative Renewable Energy in Puerto Rico Act (§§ 8121 — 8136) › Subchapter I - Preliminary Provisions (§ 8121) › § 8121 - Definitions

For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms or phrases shall have the meaning stated below, except where the context clearly indicates otherwise, and the terms importing the singular number shall be deemed to include the plural and vice versa.
(1) Renewable energy purchase agreements.— Means the agreements to purchase electric power produced from sustainable renewable energy source or alternative renewable energy source. These agreements may include, although not necessarily, the purchase of RECs, as defined, which are the product of the energy generated by a sustainable renewable energy or alternative renewable energy producer, whether at an agreed price or a pre-fixed or indexed rate for a pre-established long-term period.
(2) Administration.— Means the Energy Affairs Administration.
(3) Environmental and social attributes.— For the purposes of this chapter, means all RECs qualities and characteristics that are inseparable and represent benefits to nature, the environment, and society that are produced from the energy generated by sustainable renewable energy or alternative renewable energy, but excluding energy attributes, as defined; for the purposes of this chapter, environmental and social attributes include without limitation, reducing environmental pollutants such as carbon dioxide and other gas emissions which cause the greenhouse effect.
(4) Energy attributes.— For the purposes of this chapter, means electric power benefit production (measured in megawatts-hour (MWh) unit or fractions) from a sustainable renewable energy source or alternative renewable energy source, and includes the use or consumption of electricity and the network’s stability, its production capacity, and its contributions to Puerto Rico’s electric power system.
(5) Authority.— Means the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority.
(6) Renewable biomass.— Means any organic or biological material derived from organisms that have the potential to generate electricity, such as wood, waste, and alcohol-derived fuels; and includes natural biomass, which is produced naturally without human intervention; residual biomass, which is a byproduct or residue generated in agricultural, forest, and cattle activities, as well as solid residue from the food and agriculture industry and the wood-processing industry; for the purposes of this chapter it also includes any biomass similar in nature to those described, as designated by the Administration.
(7) Renewable portfolio standard.— Means the mandatory percentage of sustainable renewable energy or alternative renewable energy required from each retail electricity supplier as established in Subchapter II of this chapter.
(8) Renewable Energy Certificate or REC.— Means a personal property that constitutes a tradable and negotiable asset or commodity that may be purchased, sold, assigned, and transferred between persons for any lawful purpose, which is equal to one (1) megawatt-hour of electricity generated from a sustainable renewable energy source or alternative renewable energy source (issued and registered pursuant to this chapter) and, in turn, represents all environmental and social attributes, as defined in this chapter.
(9) Commission.— Means the Puerto Rico Energy Commission created under §§ 1051 et seq. of Title 22.
(10) Municipal solid waste.— Means nonhazardous solid waste generated in single or multi-family dwelling, camping or recreational areas, offices, industries, businesses, and similar establishments as a result of the use thereof during the basic activities of human beings and animals, specifically including trash, garbage, and human waste, and any other waste similar in nature, as designated by the Puerto Rico Solid Waste Authority.
(11) Executive Director.— Means the Executive Director of the Energy Affairs Administration.
(12) Qualified hydropower.— Means the energy generated from:
(a) An increased efficiency or increased generating capacity achieved at a hydroelectric facility built before the effective date of this act, or
(b) a hydroelectric facility built after the effective date of this act.
(13) Alternative renewable energy.— Means energy derived from the following sources:
(a) Conversion of municipal solid waste.
(b) Landfill gas combustion.
(c) Anaerobic digestion.
(d) Fuel cells.
(e) Any other energy that the Administration may define in the future as alternative renewable energy.
(14) Distributed renewable energy.— Means sustainable renewable energy or alternative renewable energy supplying electric power to an electric power service company or generated for self-consumption or for sale to third-parties. Community solar projects are considered distributed renewable energy at residential level and their maximum capacity shall be determined by the Puerto Rico Energy Commission with the advice of the Electric Power Authority.
(15) Sustainable renewable energy.— Means the energy derived from the following sources:
(a) Solar energy.
(b) Wind energy.
(c) Geothermal energy.
(d) Renewable biomass combustion.
(e) Renewable biomass gas combustion.
(f) Combustion of biofuel derived solely from renewable biomass.
(g) Qualified hydropower.
(h) Marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy, as defined in Section 632 of the “Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007” (Public Law 110-140, 42 U.S.C. § 17211);
(i) Ocean thermal energy.
(j) Any other clean and/or renewable energy that the Energy Commission may define in the future through regulation or order as sustainable renewable energy.
(16) Green energy.— Includes both terms “sustainable renewable energy”, “alternative renewable energy”, and “distributed renewable energy”.
(17) Sustainable renewable energy source.— Means any electricity source that produces electric power through the use of sustainable renewable energy, as such term is defined in this chapter.
(18) Alternative renewable energy source.— Means any electricity source that produces electric power through the use of alternative renewable energy, as such term is defined in this chapter.
(19) Force majeure.— Means any unforeseeable or unavoidable event, including exceptional events caused by nature such as earthquakes, floods, hurricanes (e.g. “acts of God”), and those events resulting from human actions such as riots, strikes, and wars, among others.
(20) Net meter.— Means a tool used to measure and register the two-way flow of power (bidirectional), that is, supplied and received energy in kilowatt-hour by a customer who has a distributed generation system interconnected to the power grid of PREPA.
(21) Microgrid.— Means a group of interconnected loads and distributed energy resources within clearly defined electrical boundaries that acts as a single controllable entity with respect to PREPA’s grid. The goal of microgrids is to reduce energy consumption based on fossil fuels through local renewable energy generation and strategies to reduce energy consumption. A microgrid can connect and disconnect from PREPA’s grid to enable it to operate in both grid-connected or off the grid.
(22) Operator.— Means any person who controls or manages a sustainable renewable energy source, alternative renewable energy source or retail electricity supplier.
(23) Reconciliation period.— Means a sixty (60)-day period following the last day of the recently concluded calendar year, during which a retail electricity supplier may acquire RECs to comply with the standards imposed by the renewable portfolio standard applicable to the recently concluded calendar year.
(24) Person.— Means any individual, partnership, enterprise, association, corporation, public corporation or entity under the jurisdiction of the Commission or the Administration. The term “person” specifically includes, but is not limited to, any sustainable renewable energy producer, alternative renewable energy producer, retail electricity supplier, distributed renewable energy producer, and the Authority.
(25) Fuel cells.— Means any electrochemical system that converts energy originating from a chemical reaction into electricity.
(26) Distributed renewable energy producer.— Means any distributed renewable energy source operator, as defined in this chapter.
(27) Sustainable renewable energy producer.— Means the operator of a sustainable renewable energy source that generates and sells electricity and whose capacity is higher than one (1) megawatt (Mw) of electricity or higher.
(28) Alternative renewable energy producer.— Means the operator of an alternative renewable energy source that generates and sells electricity and whose capacity is higher than one (1) megawatt (Mw) of electricity or higher.
(29) Retail electricity supplier.— Means the Electric Power Authority and any other retail electricity supplier that sold more than fifty thousand (50,000) megawatt-hours (MWh) of electric power to electric power consumers in Puerto Rico during the preceding calendar year. In order to determine whether a person is a retail electricity supplier, the retail energy sales in Puerto Rico of any of its affiliates shall be taken into account. It shall be deemed to be an “affiliate” any company that controls or administers, is controlled or administered by, or is under common control or administration with, a retail electricity supplier. The term retail electricity supplier does not include an energy producer whose energy is intended to be resold, a sustainable renewable energy or alternative renewable energy producer or a distributed renewable energy producer.
(30) Renewables Registry.— Means the North American Renewables Registry (NAR), which administers a Web-based platform to issue serialized Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), for sustainable renewable energy and alternative renewable energy sources where registered sources may create and manage their individual accounts, and quantifying and transferring RECs, or any other registry established or authorized by the Commission for accounting and transferring RECs in Puerto Rico.
History —July 19, 2010, No. 82, § 1.4; Aug. 5, 2016, No. 133, § 1.