2019 Compliance Year

This page includes information on the 2019 compliance year under the Clean Energy Standard (CES). It also includes REC and ZEC activities that affect LSEs during and after the 2019 compliance year, which differs for RECs and ZECs.

Renewable Energy Standard 2019 Compliance

The Renewable Energy Standard (RES) 2019 compliance year for Tier 1 RECs begins on January 1, 2019 and ends on December 31, 2019.

NYSERDA will continue to sell Tier 1 RECs to LSEs on a quarterly basis, as available. At the end of every quarter, NYSERDA will announce a sale of Tier 1 RECs. These sales will include 2019 Tier 1 RECs and any unpurchased Tier 1 RECs from 2017 and 2018.

The sale will conclude 21 days after each announcement.

NYSERDA will offer 2019 Tier 1 RECs for sale in the 2019 compliance year for $22.43/MWh. LSEs may be able to purchase 2017 and 2018 Tier 1 RECs during the 2019 compliance year if unpurchased 2017 and 2018 Tier 1 RECs are available. The price for 2017 Tier 1 RECs will remain $21.16/MWh.  The price for 2018 Tier 1 RECs  will remain $17.01/MWh.

Please note that 2017 and 2018 Tier 1 RECs can be used for the 2019 compliance year.

If an LSE is unable to generate or purchase the necessary Tier 1 RECs, LSEs can fulfill their 2019 Tier 1 REC compliance by making an alternative compliance payment (ACP) to NYSERDA.

The 2019 ACP costs $24.67 for each megawatt-hour of renewable energy an LSE is unable to generate or purchase the necessary Tier 1 RECs to meet its obligation. LSEs will have the option of making ACPs after NYSERDA and the LSEs have reconciled the 2019 RES compliance year REC obligations in 2020.

Additionally, any 2018 Tier 1 RECs that remain unpurchased after the end of the compliance year will be banked by NYSERDA and may be available for purchase in future compliance years.

Quarterly Sales and Allocation

Based on NYSERDA’s procurement of long-term renewable energy projects, NYSERDA anticipates having sufficient Tier 1 RECs available every quarter. However, if the amount of Tier 1 RECs does not meet expectations, NYSERDA may not hold a quarterly sale. Any Tier 1 RECs that are not sold in one quarter will be made available in the next sale. Any 2017, 2018 and 2019 Tier 1 RECs available will go on sale at the same time, and LSEs may make a single request to purchase any vintage Tier 1 RECs. However, NYSERDA will review and process 2017 Tier 1 RECs and 2018 Tier 1 RECs independently based on the right of first refusal (ROFR).

The quarterly allocation of Tier 1 RECs will consist of two major steps:

1. Each LSE will be allocated a ROFR quantity based upon its most recent annual load share. LSEs will have the opportunity to purchase any quantity of Tier 1 RECs up to the ROFR.
2. If there are any remaining RECs after the ROFR requests have been satisfied, they will be allocated to LSEs proportionally based on the number of RECs requested above their ROFR quantity.

After NYSERDA announces the quarterly sale, LSEs will use NYGATS to request Tier 1 RECs from NYSERDA for each quarterly sale. To facilitate this new process, NYGATS will:

• Provide information about each LSE’s REC balance by compliance year
• Facilitate transfer of RECs from NYSERDA to participating LSEs
• Facilitate invoicing and payment transfers
• Incorporate information on LSEs’ load share and Tier 1 REC obligation quantities

Trainings and Webinars

NYSERDA has developed training materials to demonstrate the new NYGATS capabilities and provide information on the quarterly sale processes. NYSERDA has posted them on the How to Use NYGATS page.

ZEC 2019 Compliance

The Zero-Emission Credit (ZEC) 2019 compliance year began on April 1, 2019 and ends on March 31, 2020. A new ZEC Price of $19.59 per megawatt-hour for compliance years 3 and 4 was recently provided by Department of Public Service Staff (see Letter Regarding Tranche 2). A maximum of 27,618,000 ZECs will be purchased by NYSERDA and allocated to the LSEs. After the ZEC 2019 compliance year ends, NYSERDA and the LSEs will reconcile ZEC obligations to include the number of ZECs purchased by NYSERDA and the LSE’s load share.