Knollwood Energy has joined Massachusetts’ new credit market – Clean Peak Energy Credits (CPECs). It is the same idea as SRECs but instead of credits from solar production, the customer will create credits when they use electricity from their battery storage during peak usage times instead of pulling from the grid.
Which Systems are Eligible for Clean Peak Energy Certificates?
Eligible systems are made up of qualified Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Resources that are paired with qualified Energy Storage Systems.
Qualified Renewable Portfolio Standard Resources are:
- RPS Class 1 Renewable Generation Units with a Commercial Operation Date on or after January 1, 2019 and have received a Statement of Qualification and meet all other requirements
- RPS Class I Renewable Generation Units and RPS Class II Renewable Generation Units with a Commercial Operation Date before January 1, 2019, that are co-located with a Qualified Energy Storage System that has a Commercial Operation Date on or after January 1, 2019
- Subject to additional qualifiers which can be found in 225 CMR 21.05(1)(a)1: https://www.mass.gov/doc/clean-peak-energy-standard-final-regulation/download#page=7
Qualified Energy Storage Systems:
These systems must operate primarily to store and discharge renewable energy as demonstrated by one or more of the following:
- Co-location with a Qualified RPS Resource as defined in 225 CMR 21.02 where the Qualified RPS Resource must have a nameplate capacity of at least seventy-five percent (75%) of the nameplate capacity of the energy storage; (225 CMR 21.05(1)(a)2.)
- Contractual pairing with a Qualified RPS Resource that demonstrates to the Department’s satisfaction that the Qualified Energy Storage System operates primarily to store and discharge renewable energy; (225 CMR 21.05(1)(a)2.)
- Systems must be charged within periods of typically high renewable energy production as a percent of the grid generation mix, defined below;
- Spring: 12 a.m. – 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
- Summer: 12 a.m. – 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. – 2 p.m.
- Fall: 12 a.m. – 6 a.m. and 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Winter: 12 a.m. – 6 a.m. and 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.
- Inclusion of an operational schedule in the Qualified Energy Storage System’s Interconnection Service Agreement demonstrating that the Qualified Energy Storage System serves to resolve load flow or power quality concerns otherwise associated with intermittent renewable energy resources. (225 CMR 21.05(1)(a)2.)
Statement of Qualification Application
In order to obtain Statement of Qualification, the Owner or Operator of the Clean Peak Resource, or an Authorized Agent for an Aggregation, must submit a completed application to the Massachusetts Department of Energy.*
*Knollwood Energy will take care of all of the paperwork required to get your system registered in MassCEC and Nepool GIS, and approved by MA DOER, for participation in the CPEC program. The only thing a customer has to do is (electronically) sign our contract.
How are Certificates Earned?
Unlike SREC’s, which are earned based on the number of kilowatt hours a solar energy system creates, CPEC’s are a calculation of how much energy your system saves in comparison with normal energy consumption during typical “peak” energy use hours. Thus, Certificates are only produced during the business days and hours that correspond to Seasonal and Hourly Peak electricity demand. These Peak periods are outlined as followed:
- Spring: March 1 through May 14 from 5 p.m.-9 p.m.
- Summer: May 15 through September 14 from 3 p.m.-7 p.m.
- Fall: September 15 through November 30 from 4 p.m.-8 p.m.
- Winter: December 1 through February 28 from 4 p.m.-8 p.m.
- Adjustments will be made for leap years
How are Certificates Calculated?
The number of CPEC’s a system earns will be determined by multiple factors, including a baseline of energy usage, the number of megawatt hours created during the Seasonal Peak Periods, the amount of electricity saved as a result of energy storage during Hourly Peak Periods, and other standardized multipliers.
