New Jersey Administrative Code › Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES › Chapter 8 - RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY › Subchapter 2 - RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS › Section 14:8-2.2 - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 56, No. 14, July 15, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter,
				  shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Alternative compliance payment" or "ACP" means a payment of
				  a certain dollar amount per megawatt hour, which a supplier/provider may submit
				  to comply with the class I or class II renewable energy requirement in Table A
				  in
				  14:8-2.3.
"Attribute" means a characteristic associated with
				  electricity generated using a particular renewable fuel, such as its generation
				  date, facility geographic location, unit vintage, emissions output, fuel, State
				  program eligibility, or other characteristic that can be identified, accounted,
				  and tracked.
"Bioenergy crop" means plants cultivated and harvested
				  specifically for use as fuel for the purpose of generating electricity.
"Biomass" has the same meaning as that assigned to this term
				  in Executive Order No. 13134, published in the Federal Register on August 16,
				  1999. Executive Order No. 13134 defines biomass as ". . . any organic matter
				  that is available on a renewable or recurring basis (excluding old-growth
				  timber), including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed
				  crop residues, aquatic plants, wood and wood residues, animal wastes, and other
				  waste materials."
"Black liquor" means a viscous liquid containing inorganic
				  chemicals and organic material such as lignin and aliphatic acids, which is
				  separated from wood during chemical pulping.
"Energy portfolio" means all of the electrical energy
				  supplied by a particular electric power supplier or basic generation service
				  provider to New Jersey retail customers.
"Energy year" or "EY" means the 12-month period from June 1st
				  through May 31st and shall be numbered according to the calendar year in which
				  it ends.
"Fuel cell" means an electrochemical device that converts
				  chemical energy in a hydrogen or hydrogen-rich fuel directly into electricity,
				  without combustion.
"Generation Attribute Tracking System" or "GATS" means the
				  platform providing Renewable Portfolio Standard and Environmental Compliance
				  rule facilitation services to the 13 member states of PJM Interconnection LLC.
				  GATS creates RECs based upon metered electricity supplied by project owners or
				  their representatives and tracks RECs through the various transactions, which
				  ultimately result in retirement for RPS compliance purposes.
"Geothermal energy" means energy generated by a steam
				  turbine, driven by hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in
				  the earth's crust.
"Installed capacity obligation" means the requirement for an
				  electric power supplier or basic generation service provider to obtain an
				  amount of electrical generation capacity to meet load service obligations under
				  the reliability rules of PJM Interconnection. Installed capacity includes the
				  generation capacity which a company considers part of its own electric system,
				  including wholly owned units, jointly-owned units, non-utility generation
				  (NUGs), and purchases.
"Offshore wind renewable energy certificate" or "OREC" shall
				  mean as defined at
				  14:8-6.1.
"Old-growth timber" means wood or plant matter taken from a
				  forest in the late successional stage of forest development, including plant
				  matter taken from the forest floor. Late successional forests contain live and
				  dead trees of various sizes, species, composition, and age class structure. The
				  age and structure of old-growth timber varies significantly by forest type and
				  from one biogeoclimatic zone to another.
"Qualification life" means, for any solar electric generation
				  facility, the period beginning on the date on which the facility was authorized
				  to energize under NJ.A.C. 14:8-5.8, or its equivalent at PJM Interconnect LLC,
				  and ending on the first May 31 that is at least 10 years after the date of
				  authorization to energize. A solar facility's qualification life applies to the
				  facility itself, and to each piece of equipment included in the facility,
				  regardless of any interruption in the solar facility's operation; or of any
				  disassembly, relocation, sale, or transfer of any piece of equipment included
				  in the facility.
"Renewable Energy Certificate" or "REC" means a certificate
				  representing the environmental benefits or attributes of one megawatt-hour of
				  generation from a generating facility that produces class I or class II
				  renewable energy, but shall not include a solar renewable energy
				  certificate.
"Renewable fuel" means a fuel that is naturally regenerated
				  over a short time scale and is either derived from the sun (such as thermal,
				  photochemical or photoelectric), or from other natural sources such as wind,
				  hydropower, geothermal and tidal energy, or photosynthetic energy stored in
				  biomass. This term does not include a fossil fuel, a waste product from a
				  fossil source, or a waste product from an inorganic source.
"Resource recovery facility" means a solid waste facility
				  that incinerates solid waste for the purposes of producing energy and
				  recovering metals and other materials for reuse, which the Department of
				  Environmental Protection has determined to be in compliance with current
				  environmental standards, including, but not limited to, all applicable
				  requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act,
				  42 U.S.C.
				  §§
										7401 et seq.
"Solar alternative compliance payment" or "SACP" means a
				  payment of a certain dollar amount per megawatt-hour (MWh), which a
				  supplier/provider may submit to the Board to comply with the solar electric
				  generation requirements under
				  48:3-87.
"Solar electric generating facility" or "solar facility"
				  means equipment used to produce solar electric generation, as defined at
				  14:8-1.2.
"Solar renewable energy certificate" or "SREC" means a
				  certificate issued by the Board or its designee, which represents one
				  megawatt-hour (MWh) of solar energy that is generated by a facility connected
				  to the distribution system in New Jersey, and has value based upon, and driven
				  by, the energy market.
"Transition Incentive ("TI")-Eligible Project" means a solar
				  electric generation facility that registered its intent to participate in the
				  SREC market pursuant to N.J.A.C. 14:8-10.4(a)after October 29, 2018, and has
				  maintained its SREC eligibility, but has not commenced commercial operations
				  before the Board determines that the State has attained 5.1 percent of its
				  retail sales from solar electric generation facilities. Following the closure
				  of the SREC Program, the Board shall allow projects that meet the TI
				  eligibility requirements an opportunity to register to participate in the TI
				  Program until the establishment of a registration program for a solar Successor
				  Incentive Program.
"Transition Renewable Energy Certificate" or "TREC" means a
				  certificate issued by the Board or its designee, representing the environmental
				  attributes of one megawatt-hour of electric generation from a TI-Eligible
				  Project.
"TREC Administrator" means the agent jointly procured and/or
				  assigned by the State's Electric Distribution Companies to utilize the
				  Generation Attribute Tracking System to procure and allocate TRECs pursuant to
				  this subchapter.
"True-up period" means a period, as determined by the Board,
				  of no less than 120 days following the end of the energy year by which a BGS
				  provider or TPS must demonstrate compliance with the RPS for that energy year.
"Voluntary clean electricity market" or "voluntary clean
				  electricity program" means any program, system, market or procedure through
				  which retail electric customers may elect to purchase a class I (including
				  solar) or class II renewable energy product on a voluntary basis. New Jersey's
				  Voluntary Clean Power Choice Program is a voluntary clean electricity
				  program.