Regional Approach Forms for Renewables

A new collaborative system being devised for the Western States in the U.S. aims to make sure that renewable energy production is transparent, precise and accurate in order to best reflect clean energy generation for the Green Tags, Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) markets.

Denver, Colorado – April 9, 2004 [SolarAccess.com] The Operational Rules Committee of the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) released draft interim operating rules that include recommendations on the functions and operating guidelines of a system to track and verify renewable electricity generation in the West. WREGIS, which is being funded by the Western Governors’ Association (WGA), the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) and the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission), will encompass 11 western states, two Canadian provinces and northern Baja — the area covered by the Western Interconnect. WREGIS is expected to be operational in 2005. It is expected to operate as an independent accounting system and database that will track renewable energy generation and ownership of renewable energy certificates within the Interconnect. “The development of draft operating rules for WREGIS is the culmination of a great deal of hard work and has truly been a collaborative effort.” said Pam Inmann, Executive Director of the Western Governors’ Association. “The participation of stakeholders, representing a wide range of interests from all areas of the Western Interconnect, has been critical to making determinations about all aspects of how the renewable energy tracking system will function in the West. Over the past three months, the WREGIS Operational Rules Committee (ORC) and Data Interface Subcommittee (DISC) have conducted weekly conference calls to develop these draft recommendations. More than 600 stakeholders have been asked to participate in the development of the WREGIS tracking system. “WREGIS will become instrumental in the fulfillment of California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, “said Energy Commissioner John Geesman, chair of the Commission’s Renewables Committee. “The system will ensure that renewable energy production is transparent, precise and accurate as our state strives to meet its RPS goal of producing 20 percent of its electricity supply from renewable sources by 2010.” Anyone interested in reviewing these draft rules is encouraged to access them via the Web at the Web link below. Since development of final operating rules is on a tight timeframe, written comments are requested by no later than April 16th, and should be sent to Jennifer Martin, the ORC technical staff, at [email protected]. Once comments are received, the ORC will be holding two conference calls on April 23rd and April 30th to review and incorporate stakeholder comments as appropriate. These calls are open to any interested participants.