BILL REQ. #: H-4216.3
State of Washington | 62nd Legislature | 2012 Regular Session |
Read first time 02/13/12. Referred to Committee on Environment.
AN ACT Relating to coal transition power; amending RCW 19.285.030, 19.285.040, 19.29A.010, and 19.29A.060; and reenacting and amending RCW 80.80.010.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 19.285.030 and 2009 c 565 s 20 are each amended to
read as follows:
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter
unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Attorney general" means the Washington state office of the
attorney general.
(2) "Auditor" means: (a) The Washington state auditor's office or
its designee for qualifying utilities under its jurisdiction that are
not investor-owned utilities; or (b) an independent auditor selected by
a qualifying utility that is not under the jurisdiction of the state
auditor and is not an investor-owned utility.
(3) "Commission" means the Washington state utilities and
transportation commission.
(4) "Conservation" means any reduction in electric power
consumption resulting from increases in the efficiency of energy use,
production, or distribution.
(5) "Cost-effective" has the same meaning as defined in RCW
80.52.030.
(6) "Council" means the Washington state apprenticeship and
training council within the department of labor and industries.
(7) "Customer" means a person or entity that purchases electricity
for ultimate consumption and not for resale.
(8) "Department" means the department of commerce or its successor.
(9) "Distributed generation" means an eligible renewable resource
where the generation facility or any integrated cluster of such
facilities has a generating capacity of not more than five megawatts.
(10) "Eligible renewable resource" means:
(a) Electricity from a generation facility powered by a renewable
resource other than freshwater that commences operation after March 31,
1999, where: (i) The facility is located in the Pacific Northwest; or
(ii) the electricity from the facility is delivered into Washington
state on a real-time basis without shaping, storage, or integration
services; or
(b) Incremental electricity produced as a result of efficiency
improvements completed after March 31, 1999, to hydroelectric
generation projects owned by a qualifying utility and located in the
Pacific Northwest or to hydroelectric generation in irrigation pipes
and canals located in the Pacific Northwest, where the additional
generation in either case does not result in new water diversions or
impoundments.
(11) "Investor-owned utility" has the same meaning as defined in
RCW 19.29A.010.
(12) "Load" means the amount of kilowatt-hours of electricity
delivered in the most recently completed year by a qualifying utility
to its Washington retail customers.
(13) "Nonpower attributes" means all environmentally related
characteristics, exclusive of energy, capacity reliability, and other
electrical power service attributes, that are associated with the
generation of electricity from a renewable resource, including but not
limited to the facility's fuel type, geographic location, vintage,
qualification as an eligible renewable resource, and avoided emissions
of pollutants to the air, soil, or water, and avoided emissions of
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
(14) "Pacific Northwest" has the same meaning as defined for the
Bonneville power administration in section 3 of the Pacific Northwest
electric power planning and conservation act (94 Stat. 2698; 16 U.S.C.
Sec. 839a).
(15) "Public facility" has the same meaning as defined in RCW
39.35C.010.
(16) "Qualifying utility" means an electric utility, as the term
"electric utility" is defined in RCW 19.29A.010, that serves more than
twenty-five thousand customers in the state of Washington. The number
of customers served may be based on data reported by a utility in form
861, "annual electric utility report," filed with the energy
information administration, United States department of energy.
(17) "Renewable energy credit" means a tradable certificate of
proof of at least one megawatt-hour of an eligible renewable resource
where the generation facility is not powered by freshwater, the
certificate includes all of the nonpower attributes associated with
that one megawatt-hour of electricity, and the certificate is verified
by a renewable energy credit tracking system selected by the
department.
(18) "Renewable resource" means: (a) Water; (b) wind; (c) solar
energy; (d) geothermal energy; (e) landfill gas; (f) wave, ocean, or
tidal power; (g) gas from sewage treatment facilities; (h) biodiesel
fuel as defined in RCW 82.29A.135 that is not derived from crops raised
on land cleared from old growth or first-growth forests where the
clearing occurred after December 7, 2006; and (i) biomass energy based
on animal waste or solid organic fuels from wood, forest, or field
residues, or dedicated energy crops that do not include (i) wood pieces
that have been treated with chemical preservatives such as creosote,
pentachlorophenol, or copper-chrome-arsenic; (ii) black liquor by-product from paper production; (iii) wood from old growth forests; or
(iv) municipal solid waste.
(19) "Rule" means rules adopted by an agency or other entity of
Washington state government to carry out the intent and purposes of
this chapter.
(20) "Year" means the twelve-month period commencing January 1st
and ending December 31st.
(21) "Coal transition power" has the same meaning as defined in RCW
80.80.010.
Sec. 2 RCW 19.285.040 and 2007 c 1 s 4 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) Each qualifying utility shall pursue all available conservation
that is cost-effective, reliable, and feasible.
(a) By January 1, 2010, using methodologies consistent with those
used by the Pacific Northwest electric power and conservation planning
council in its most recently published regional power plan, each
qualifying utility shall identify its achievable cost-effective
conservation potential through 2019. At least every two years
thereafter, the qualifying utility shall review and update this
assessment for the subsequent ten-year period.
(b) Beginning January 2010, each qualifying utility shall establish
and make publicly available a biennial acquisition target for cost-effective conservation consistent with its identification of achievable
opportunities in (a) of this subsection, and meet that target during
the subsequent two-year period. At a minimum, each biennial target
must be no lower than the qualifying utility's pro rata share for that
two-year period of its cost-effective conservation potential for the
subsequent ten-year period.
(c) In meeting its conservation targets, a qualifying utility may
count high-efficiency cogeneration owned and used by a retail electric
customer to meet its own needs. High-efficiency cogeneration is the
sequential production of electricity and useful thermal energy from a
common fuel source, where, under normal operating conditions, the
facility has a useful thermal energy output of no less than thirty-three percent of the total energy output. The reduction in load due to
high-efficiency cogeneration shall be: (i) Calculated as the ratio of
the fuel chargeable to power heat rate of the cogeneration facility
compared to the heat rate on a new and clean basis of a
best-commercially available technology combined-cycle natural gas-fired
combustion turbine; and (ii) counted towards meeting the biennial
conservation target in the same manner as other conservation savings.
(d) The commission may determine if a conservation program
implemented by an investor-owned utility is cost-effective based on the
commission's policies and practice.
(e) The commission may rely on its standard practice for review and
approval of investor-owned utility conservation targets.
(2)(a) Each qualifying utility shall use eligible renewable
resources or acquire equivalent renewable energy credits, or a
combination of both, to meet the following annual targets:
(i) At least three percent of its load by January 1, 2012, and each
year thereafter through December 31, 2015;
(ii) At least nine percent of its load by January 1, 2016, and each
year thereafter through December 31, 2019; and
(iii) At least fifteen percent of its load by January 1, 2020, and
each year thereafter.
(b) A qualifying utility may count distributed generation at double
the facility's electrical output if the utility: (i) Owns or has
contracted for the distributed generation and the associated renewable
energy credits; or (ii) has contracted to purchase the associated
renewable energy credits.
(c) In meeting the annual targets in (a) of this subsection, a
qualifying utility shall calculate its annual load based on the average
of the utility's load for the previous two years.
(d) A qualifying utility shall be considered in compliance with an
annual target in (a) of this subsection if: (i) The utility's weather-adjusted load for the previous three years on average did not increase
over that time period; (ii) after December 7, 2006, the utility did not
commence or renew ownership or incremental purchases of electricity
from resources other than coal transition power or renewable resources
other than on a daily spot price basis and the electricity is not
offset by equivalent renewable energy credits; and (iii) the utility
invested at least one percent of its total annual retail revenue
requirement that year on eligible renewable resources, renewable energy
credits, or a combination of both.
(e) The requirements of this section may be met for any given year
with renewable energy credits produced during that year, the preceding
year, or the subsequent year. Each renewable energy credit may be used
only once to meet the requirements of this section.
(f) In complying with the targets established in (a) of this
subsection, a qualifying utility may not count:
(i) Eligible renewable resources or distributed generation where
the associated renewable energy credits are owned by a separate entity;
or
(ii) Eligible renewable resources or renewable energy credits
obtained for and used in an optional pricing program such as the
program established in RCW 19.29A.090.
(g) Where fossil and combustible renewable resources are cofired in
one generating unit located in the Pacific Northwest where the cofiring
commenced after March 31, 1999, the unit shall be considered to produce
eligible renewable resources in direct proportion to the percentage of
the total heat value represented by the heat value of the renewable
resources.
(h)(i) A qualifying utility that acquires an eligible renewable
resource or renewable energy credit may count that acquisition at one
and two-tenths times its base value:
(A) Where the eligible renewable resource comes from a facility
that commenced operation after December 31, 2005; and
(B) Where the developer of the facility used apprenticeship
programs approved by the council during facility construction.
(ii) The council shall establish minimum levels of labor hours to
be met through apprenticeship programs to qualify for this extra
credit.
(i) A qualifying utility shall be considered in compliance with an
annual target in (a) of this subsection if events beyond the reasonable
control of the utility that could not have been reasonably anticipated
or ameliorated prevented it from meeting the renewable energy target.
Such events include weather-related damage, mechanical failure,
strikes, lockouts, and actions of a governmental authority that
adversely affect the generation, transmission, or distribution of an
eligible renewable resource under contract to a qualifying utility.
(3) Utilities that become qualifying utilities after December 31,
2006, shall meet the requirements in this section on a time frame
comparable in length to that provided for qualifying utilities as of
December 7, 2006.
Sec. 3 RCW 80.80.010 and 2011 c 180 s 102 are each reenacted and
amended to read as follows:
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter
unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Attorney general" means the Washington state office of the
attorney general.
(2) "Auditor" means: (a) The Washington state auditor's office or
its designee for consumer-owned utilities under its jurisdiction; or
(b) an independent auditor selected by a consumer-owned utility that is
not under the jurisdiction of the state auditor.
(3) "Average available greenhouse gas emissions output" means the
level of greenhouse gas emissions as surveyed and determined by the
energy policy division of the department of commerce under RCW
80.80.050.
(4) "Baseload electric generation" means electric generation from
a power plant that is designed and intended to provide electricity at
an annualized plant capacity factor of at least sixty percent.
(5) "Coal transition power" means the output of a coal-fired
electric generation facility that is subject to an obligation to meet
the standards contained in RCW 80.80.040(3)(c) and sold under a
long-term financial commitment that includes a combination of unit
output and power acquired from a specified or unspecified source that
is needed to fulfill contractual obligations when unit output from the
coal-fired electric generation facility is reduced or curtailed.
(6) "Cogeneration facility" means a power plant in which the heat
or steam is also used for industrial or commercial heating or cooling
purposes and that meets federal energy regulatory commission standards
for qualifying facilities under the public utility regulatory policies
act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. Sec. 824a-3), as amended.
(7) "Combined-cycle natural gas thermal electric generation
facility" means a power plant that employs a combination of one or more
gas turbines and steam turbines in which electricity is produced in the
steam turbine from otherwise lost waste heat exiting from one or more
of the gas turbines.
(8) "Commission" means the Washington utilities and transportation
commission.
(9) "Consumer-owned utility" means a municipal utility formed under
Title 35 RCW, a public utility district formed under Title 54 RCW, an
irrigation district formed under chapter 87.03 RCW, a cooperative
formed under chapter 23.86 RCW, a mutual corporation or association
formed under chapter 24.06 RCW, or port district within which an
industrial district has been established as authorized by Title 53 RCW,
that is engaged in the business of distributing electricity to more
than one retail electric customer in the state.
(10) "Department" means the department of ecology.
(11) "Distributed generation" means electric generation connected
to the distribution level of the transmission and distribution grid,
which is usually located at or near the intended place of use.
(12) "Electric utility" means an electrical company or a consumer-owned utility.
(13) "Electrical company" means a company owned by investors that
meets the definition of RCW 80.04.010.
(14) "Governing board" means the board of directors or legislative
authority of a consumer-owned utility.
(15) "Greenhouse gas" includes carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride.
(16) "Long-term financial commitment" means:
(a) Either a new ownership interest in baseload electric generation
or an upgrade to a baseload electric generation facility; or
(b) A new or renewed contract for baseload electric generation with
a term of five or more years for the provision of retail power or
wholesale power to end-use customers in this state.
(17) "Memorandum of agreement" or "memorandum" means a binding and
enforceable contract entered into pursuant to RCW 80.80.100 between the
governor on behalf of the state and an owner of a baseload electric
generation facility in the state that produces coal transition power.
(18) "Plant capacity factor" means the ratio of the electricity
produced during a given time period, measured in kilowatt-hours, to the
electricity the unit could have produced if it had been operated at its
rated capacity during that period, expressed in kilowatt-hours.
(19) "Power plant" means a facility for the generation of
electricity that is permitted as a single plant by a jurisdiction
inside or outside the state.
(20) "Upgrade" means any modification made for the primary purpose
of increasing the electric generation capacity of a baseload electric
generation facility. "Upgrade" does not include routine or necessary
maintenance, installation of emission control equipment, installation,
replacement, or modification of equipment that improves the heat rate
of the facility, or installation, replacement, or modification of
equipment for the primary purpose of maintaining reliable generation
output capability that does not increase the heat input or fuel usage
as specified in existing generation air quality permits as of July 22,
2007, but may result in incidental increases in generation capacity.
Sec. 4 RCW 19.29A.010 and 2000 c 213 s 2 are each amended to read
as follows:
The definitions in this section apply throughout this chapter
unless the context clearly requires otherwise.
(1) "Biomass generation" means electricity derived from burning
solid organic fuels from wood, forest, or field residue, or dedicated
energy crops that do not include wood pieces that have been treated
with chemical preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or
copper-chrome-arsenic.
(2) "Bonneville power administration system mix" means a generation
mix sold by the Bonneville power administration that is net of any
resource specific sales and that is net of any electricity sold to
direct service industrial customers, as defined in section 3(8) of the
Pacific Northwest electric power planning and conservation act (16
U.S.C. Sec. 839(a)(8)).
(3) "Coal generation" means the electricity produced by a
generating facility that burns coal as the primary fuel source.
(4) "Commission" means the utilities and transportation commission.
(5) "Conservation" means an increase in efficiency in the use of
energy use that yields a decrease in energy consumption while providing
the same or higher levels of service. Conservation includes low-income
weatherization programs.
(6) "Consumer-owned utility" means a municipal electric utility
formed under Title 35 RCW, a public utility district formed under Title
54 RCW, an irrigation district formed under chapter 87.03 RCW, a
cooperative formed under chapter 23.86 RCW, or a mutual corporation or
association formed under chapter 24.06 RCW, that is engaged in the
business of distributing electricity to more than one retail electric
customer in the state.
(7) "Declared resource" means an electricity source specifically
identified by a retail supplier to serve retail electric customers. A
declared resource includes a stated quantity of electricity tied
directly to a specified generation facility or set of facilities either
through ownership or contract purchase, or a contractual right to a
stated quantity of electricity from a specified generation facility or
set of facilities.
(8) "Department" means the department of ((community, trade, and
economic development)) commerce.
(9) "Electricity information coordinator" means the organization
selected by the department under RCW 19.29A.080 to: (a) Compile
generation data in the Northwest power pool by generating project and
by resource category; (b) compare the quantity of electricity from
declared resources reported by retail suppliers with available
generation from such resources; (c) calculate the net system power mix;
and (d) coordinate with other comparable organizations in the western
interconnection.
(10) "Electric meters in service" means those meters that record in
at least nine of twelve calendar months in any calendar year not less
than two hundred fifty kilowatt hours per month.
(11) "Electricity product" means the electrical energy produced by
a generating facility or facilities that a retail supplier sells or
offers to sell to retail electric customers in the state of Washington,
provided that nothing in this title shall be construed to mean that
electricity is a good or product for the purposes of Title 62A RCW, or
any other purpose. It does not include electrical energy generated on-site at a retail electric customer's premises.
(12) "Electric utility" means a consumer-owned or investor-owned
utility as defined in this section.
(13) "Electricity" means electric energy measured in kilowatt
hours, or electric capacity measured in kilowatts, or both.
(14) "Fuel mix" means the actual or imputed sources of electricity
sold to retail electric customers, expressed in terms of percentage
contribution by resource category. The total fuel mix included in each
disclosure shall total one hundred percent.
(15) "Geothermal generation" means electricity derived from thermal
energy naturally produced within the earth.
(16) "Governing body" means the council of a city or town, the
commissioners of an irrigation district, municipal electric utility, or
public utility district, or the board of directors of an electric
cooperative or mutual association that has the authority to set and
approve rates.
(17) "High efficiency cogeneration" means electricity produced by
equipment, such as heat or steam used for industrial, commercial,
heating, or cooling purposes, that meets the federal energy regulatory
commission standards for qualifying facilities under the public utility
regulatory policies act of 1978.
(18) "Hydroelectric generation" means a power source created when
water flows from a higher elevation to a lower elevation and the flow
is converted to electricity in one or more generators at a single
facility.
(19) "Investor-owned utility" means a company owned by investors
that meets the definition of RCW 80.04.010 and is engaged in
distributing electricity to more than one retail electric customer in
the state.
(20) "Landfill gas generation" means electricity produced by a
generating facility that uses waste gases produced by the decomposition
of organic materials in landfills.
(21) "Natural gas generation" means electricity produced by a
generating facility that burns natural gas as the primary fuel source.
(22) "Northwest power pool" means the generating resources included
in the United States portion of the Northwest power pool area as
defined by the western systems coordinating council.
(23) "Net system power mix" means the fuel mix in the Northwest
power pool, net of: (a) Any declared resources in the Northwest power
pool identified by in-state retail suppliers or out-of-state entities
that offer electricity for sale to retail electric customers; (b) any
electricity sold by the Bonneville power administration to direct
service industrial customers; and (c) any resource specific sales made
by the Bonneville power administration.
(24) "Oil generation" means electricity produced by a generating
facility that burns oil as the primary fuel source.
(25) "Proprietary customer information" means: (a) Information
that relates to the source and amount of electricity used by a retail
electric customer, a retail electric customer's payment history, and
household data that is made available by the customer solely by virtue
of the utility-customer relationship; and (b) information contained in
a retail electric customer's bill.
(26) "Renewable resources" means electricity generation facilities
fueled by: (a) Water; (b) wind; (c) solar energy; (d) geothermal
energy; (e) landfill gas; or (f) biomass energy based on solid organic
fuels from wood, forest, or field residues, or dedicated energy crops
that do not include wood pieces that have been treated with chemical
preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or copper-chrome-arsenic.
(27) "Resale" means the purchase and subsequent sale of electricity
for profit, but does not include the purchase and the subsequent sale
of electricity at the same rate at which the electricity was purchased.
(28) "Retail electric customer" means a person or entity that
purchases electricity for ultimate consumption and not for resale.
(29) "Retail supplier" means an electric utility that offers an
electricity product for sale to retail electric customers in the state.
(30) "Small utility" means any consumer-owned utility with twenty-five thousand or fewer electric meters in service, or that has an
average of seven or fewer customers per mile of distribution line.
(31) "Solar generation" means electricity derived from radiation
from the sun that is directly or indirectly converted to electrical
energy.
(32) "State" means the state of Washington.
(33) "Waste incineration generation" means electricity derived from
burning solid or liquid wastes from businesses, households,
municipalities, or waste treatment operations.
(34) "Wind generation" means electricity created by movement of air
that is converted to electrical energy.
(35) "Transition power" has the same meaning as coal transition
power as defined in RCW 80.80.010.
Sec. 5 RCW 19.29A.060 and 2000 c 213 s 4 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) Each retail supplier shall disclose the fuel mix of each
electricity product it offers to retail electric customers as follows:
(a) For an electricity product comprised entirely of declared
resources, a retail supplier shall disclose the fuel mix for the
electricity product based on the quantity of electric generation from
those declared resources for the previous calendar year and any
adjustment, if taken, available under subsection (6) of this section.
(b) For an electricity product comprised of no declared resources,
a retail supplier shall report the fuel mix for the electricity product
as the fuel mix of net system power for the previous calendar year, as
determined by the electricity information coordinator under RCW
19.29A.080.
(c) For an electricity product comprised of a combination of
declared resources and the net system power, a retail supplier shall
disclose the fuel mix for the electricity product as a weighted average
of the megawatt-hours from declared resources and the megawatt-hours
from the net system power mix for the previous calendar year according
to the proportion of declared resources and net system power contained
in the electricity product.
(2) The disclosures required by this section shall identify the
percentage of the total electricity product sold by a retail supplier
during the previous calendar year from each of the following
categories:
(a) Coal generation;
(b) Hydroelectric generation;
(c) Natural gas generation;
(d) Nuclear generation; and
(e) Other generation, except that when a component of the other
generation category meets or exceeds two percent of the total
electricity product sold by a retail supplier during the previous
calendar year, the retail supplier shall identify the component or
components and display the fuel mix percentages for these component
sources, which may include, but are not limited to: (i) Biomass
generation; (ii) geothermal generation; (iii) landfill gas generation;
(iv) oil generation; (v) solar generation; (vi) waste incineration;
((or)) (vii) wind generation; or (viii) transition power. A retail
supplier may voluntarily identify any component or components within
the other generation category that comprises two percent or less of
annual sales. A retail supplier may voluntarily report transition
power as coal power under (a) of this subsection or as transition
power.
(3) Retail suppliers may separately report a subcategory of natural
gas generation to identify high efficiency cogeneration.
(4) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, a retail
supplier cannot include in the disclosure label any environmental
quality or environmental impact qualifier related to any of the
generation categories disclosed.
(5) For the portion of an electricity product purchased from the
Bonneville power administration, retail suppliers may disclose the
Bonneville power administration system mix.
(6) A retail supplier may adjust its reported fuel mix for known
changes in its declared resources for the current year based on any
changes in its sources of electricity supply from either generation or
contracts. If a retail supplier changes its fuel mix during a calendar
year, it shall report those changes to the electricity information
coordinator.
(7) Disclosure of the fuel mix information required in this section
shall be made in the following uniform format: A tabular format with
two columns, where the first column shall alphabetically list each
category and the second column shall display the corresponding
percentage of the total that each category represents. The percentage
shall be reported as a numeric value rounded to the nearest one
percent. The percentages listed for the categories identified must sum
to one hundred percent with the table displaying such a total.