Signed by Governor Charlie Baker

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that increases state clean energy requirements.

Highlights:

• Specifies that for the purpose of reviewing cost effectiveness, programs that have a cost ratio greater than 1.0 indicating benefits are greater than costs shall be considered cost-effective (Sec. 6).

• Defines “clean peak certificate” as credit received for each megawatt hour of energy or energy reserves provided during a seasonal peak period that represents a compliance mechanism (Sec. 7).

• Defines “qualified energy storage system” as an energy storage system that commenced commercial operation or provided incremental new capacity at an existing energy storage system on or after January 1, 2019 (Sec. 9).

• Defines “seasonal peak period” as the daily time windows during any of the 4 annual seasons when the net demand of electricity is the highest, provided however that the period shall be not less than 1 hour and not longer than 4 hours for any season (Sec. 11).

• Exempts any electric load served under a retail electricity supply contract no later than December 31, 2018 from any incremental compliance obligations (Sec. 12).

• Requires every retail electric supplier providing service under contracts executed or extended after December 31, 2018 provide a minimum percentage of kilowatt-hour sales to end-use customers from clean peak resources (Sec. 13).

• Requires electric distribution companies file an annual electric distribution system resiliency report with the Department of Energy Resources which shall document the following, including, but not limited to (Sec. 18):

• A heat map that shows the electric load on the electric distribution system, including electric loads during peak electricity demand periods;

• Highlights of the most congested or constrained areas in the electric distribution system; and

• Identifiers of areas of the electric distribution system that are most vulnerable to outages due to high electricity demand, lack of local electric generating resources, or extreme weather events.

• Authorizes the Department of Energy Resources to grant waivers from regulatory requirements as necessary for the development of innovative projects to reduce lost or unaccounted for gas and costs to ratepayers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Sec. 19).

• Requires the waiver granted by the Department of Energy Resources document the following information, including, but not limited to (Sec. 19):

• The goals of the innovative project;

• The expected cost of the project;

• The expected benefit to ratepayers; and

• The expected reduction to greenhouse emissions.

• Establishes an energy storage target of 1000 megawatt hours by december 31, 2025 for the state of Massachusetts (Sec. 20).

• Authorizes the Department of Energy Resources to investigate and report on the benefits and costs of acquiring additional offshore wind generation facilities to procure up to approximately 1,600 megawatts of capacity (Sec. 21).

Full Bill Text