North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 04 - COMMERCE › Chapter 11 - UTILITIES COMMISSION › Chapter 8 › Article 11 - RESOURCE PLANNING AND CERTIFICATION › Section 11 R08-67 - RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY PORTFOLIO STANDARD (REPS)

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) Definitions.
(1) The following terms shall be defined as
				  provided in
				  G.S.
				  62-133.8: "Combined heat and power system";
				  "demand-side management"; "electric power supplier"; "new renewable energy
				  facility"; "renewable energy certificate"; "renewable energy facility";
				  "renewable energy resource"; and "incremental costs."
(2) For purposes of determining an electric
				  power supplier's avoided costs, "avoided cost rates" mean an electric power
				  supplier's most recently approved or established avoided cost rates in this
				  state, as of the date the contract is executed, for purchases of electricity
				  from qualifying facilities pursuant to Section 210 of the Public Utility
				  Regulatory Policies Act of 1978. If the Commission has approved an avoided cost
				  rate for the electric power supplier for the year when the contract is
				  executed, applicable to contracts of the same nature and duration as the
				  contract between the electric power supplier and the seller, that rate shall be
				  used as the avoided cost. Therefore, for example, for a contract by an electric
				  public utility with a term of 15 years, the avoided cost rate applicable to
				  that contract would be the comparable, Commission-approved, 15-year, long-term,
				  levelized rate in effect at the time the contract was executed. In all other
				  cases, the avoided cost shall be a good faith estimate of the electric power
				  supplier's avoided cost, levelized over the duration of the contract,
				  determined as of the date the contract is executed, taking into consideration
				  the avoided cost rates then in effect as established by the Commission. In any
				  event, when found by the Commission to be appropriate and in the public
				  interest, a good faith estimate of an electric public utility's avoided cost,
				  levelized over the duration of the contract, determined as of the date the
				  contract is executed, may be used in a particular REPS cost recovery
				  proceeding. Determinations of avoided costs, including estimates thereof, shall
				  be subject to continuing Commission oversight and, if necessary, modification
				  should circumstances so require.
(3) "Energy efficiency measure" means an
				  equipment, physical, or program change that when implemented results in less
				  use of energy to perform the same function or provide the same level of
				  service. "Energy efficiency measure" does not include demand-side management.
				  It includes energy produced from a combined heat and power system that uses
				  nonrenewable resources to the extent the system:
(i) Uses waste heat to produce electricity or
				  useful, measurable thermal or mechanical energy at a retail electric customer's
				  facility; and
(ii) Results in less
				  energy used to perform the same function or provide the same level of service
				  at a retail electric customer's facility.
(4) "Year-end number of customer accounts"
				  means the number of accounts within each customer class as of December 31 for a
				  given calendar year determined in a manner approved by the Commission pursuant
				  to subsection (c)(4) or determined in the same manner as that information is
				  reported to the Energy Information Administration, United States Department of
				  Energy, for annual electric sales and revenue reporting.
(5) "Utility compliance aggregator" is an
				  organization that assists an electric power supplier in demonstrating its
				  compliance with REPS. Such demonstration may include, among other things,
				  filing REPS compliance plans or reports and participating in NC-RETS on behalf
				  of the electric power supplier or a group of electric power
				  suppliers.