PSC: Seeks public comment on renewable resource credit rules

Contact: Teresa Weidemann-Smith, (608) 266-9600

MADISON – The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) seeks public comment on draft rules, issued today, that would revise how renewable resource credits (RRCs) are created and tracked. Electric utilities and electric cooperatives use RRCs to comply with Wisconsin’s Renewable Portfolio Standard.

2009 Wisconsin Act 406 (Act 406) established additional ways for Wisconsin electric providers to create RRCs. Act 406 also requires the PSC to promulgate rules to clarify how an electric provider can create RRCs in situations where the electric provider, or its customer, displaces the use of electricity from fossil fuels or nuclear power by instead using solar or geothermal energy, biomass, biogas, synthetic gas, densified fuel pellets, or fuel from pyrolysis of organic or waste material. Act 406 requires the Commission to propose these rules by January 1, 2011.

In addition to making minor technical changes to the current rules, the draft rules:

* Clarify that biogas is a renewable resource;

* Define the types of facilities that are eligible for creating RRCs based on the displacement of electricity from fossil fuels or nuclear power;

* Establish procedures for registering and certifying such facilities in a tracking database; and

* Provide a framework for calculating the number of RRCs created each year by each such facility.

The PSC established docket 1-AC-234 to conduct the Act 406 rulemaking. Documents associated with the rulemaking can be viewed on the PSC’s Electronic Regulatory Filing System at http://psc.wi.gov. Type case number 1-AC-234 into the boxes provided on the PSC homepage, or click on the Electronic Regulatory Filing System button.

The PSC will hold a public hearing on the draft rules in Madison on February 15, 2011. Public comments may also be submitted online at: http://psc.wi.gov/apps/dockets/comment.aspx. Written comments on the draft rules will be accepted until noon on March 1, 2011 (or February 28, 2011, at noon, if filed by fax). Any person may submit written comments.