Texas Posts 13% Increase in Energy from Renewable Sources

Texas posted a 13 percent increase in energy generated by renewable sources in 2011, according to the state’s renewable energy credits registry administered by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), grid operator for most of the state.   

The renewable energy recorded in the state’s renewable energy credit program was 31.7 million megawatt-hours (MWh) in 2011, compared to 28 million MWh in 2010 — a 13 percent increase — as reported in the Texas renewable energy credit program annual report, filed Wednesday at the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUC). 

RENEWABLE ENERGY PRODUCED IN TEXAS

Competitive retail electric providers must acquire and retire renewable energy credits annually based on their load-ratio share of the state’s renewable portfolio standard mandate. 

Any electric provider may voluntarily retire renewable energy credits to substantiate “green energy” claims.   

A renewable energy credit (REC) is a tradable instrument that represents one megawatt-hour, or MWh, of renewable energy produced. A MWh is the amount of energy used by about 1,000 Texas homes in an average month.

For the fourth consecutive year, the RECs retired in the voluntary market exceeded the mandatory retirements:

• Voluntary: 15.29 million RECs were retired in the voluntary market — a 29 percent increase over 2011’s record of 11.83 million;
• Mandatory: 9 million RECs were retired by the state’s 177 competitive retail electricity providers in compliance with the state renewable portfolio standard;
• Total: 24.32 million total RECs were retired in 2011, compared to 20.86 million in 2010, 15.73 million in 2009 and 13.5 million in 2008.

RENEWABLE ENERGY CREDIT RETIREMENTS

Since 2008, the program also has awarded compliance premiums for certain RECs that are generated by non-wind renewable energy sources. 

For the purpose of the renewable portfolio standard requirements, one compliance premium is equal to one REC. Last year, 16 companies received a total of 367,513 compliance premiums.

COMPLIANCE PREMIUMS – NON-WIND RENEWABLE SOURCES

The Texas Legislature established the renewable portfolio standard as part of the restructuring of the state’s electricity market in 1999 to increase incentives for renewable energy production. 

The PUC implemented the renewable energy credit program in 2001 and established ERCOT as the administrator.   

The program currently includes 118 generation accounts representing a total of 11,287.8 MW of new renewable generation added in Texas since 1999. (An additional 297.6 MW registered in the program is from six renewable generation resources that were in service prior to September 1999, for a total of 11,585 MW.) 

Texas exceeded 10,000 MW of renewable capacity in 2009, achieving — more than 15 years early — the Texas Legislature’s goal of 10,000 MW of renewable generation by 2025.

CAPACITY REGISTERED IN TEXAS REC PROGRAM*

(*Does not include generation in service prior to September 1999. Totals vary due to rounding.)

The megawatts of capacity reported in the REC annual report may not align with total renewable resources registered in ERCOT planning reports and other reporting agencies because it includes renewable generation throughout Texas, not just ERCOT.

In addition, the program is voluntary and only tracks renewable resource generation registered in the program. 

About ERCOT:

ERCOT manages the flow of electric power to 23 million Texas customers — representing 85 percent of the state's electric load. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects 40,500 miles of transmission lines and more than 550 generation units.

ERCOT also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 6.7 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature.

ERCOT's members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities (transmission and distribution providers), and municipal-owned electric utilities.

About the author: Robbie Searcy is in media relations with ERCOT.