N.J. Admin. Code § 14:8-6.7 - Annual true up

(a) Concurrent with the RPS compliance report required by N.J.A.C. 14:8-2.11, but no sooner than October 1st following the end of each energy year, an annual true up shall be conducted by the OREC administrator, suppliers, qualified OSW projects, and EDCs, with the oversight of the Board, consisting of the following:

1. Verification of supplier OREC obligation.

i. Each supplier's total annual OREC obligation is calculated based on actual retail sales and the OSW carve-out.

ii. Suppliers shall acquire additional OREC purchases or OACP credit, as necessary, to comply with the OSW carve-out.

iii. If, during the annual true up, the Board determines that a supplier did not meet its OREC obligation, the Board shall initiate whatever action necessary to ensure compliance, in accordance with existing RPS rules.

iv. If a supplier exits the New Jersey market because of bankruptcy or any other reason, the Board shall ensure that the OREC obligation is met for any energy delivered by that supplier, and that any supplier that steps into the exiting supplier's energy delivery obligations also meets the corresponding OREC obligations or the obligation shall be equally redistributed among all suppliers in the following energy year;

2. Verification of the annual OREC allowance.

i. Each qualified OSW project's total OREC submission for the energy year is confirmed as not exceeding its annual OREC allowance under its OREC order and consistent with the projects performance. Monthly OREC allowances may be exceeded, as long as the total OREC allowance is not exceeded.

ii. If it is determined that a qualified OSW projects did not meet its annual OREC allowance, it has the opportunity to submit any ORECs from the current year or banked ORECs to make up the short fall as part of the annual true up, but has no recourse if it does not have the ORECs to provide;

3. Verification of all project revenues.

i. Qualified OSW projects shall confirm or demonstrate to the OREC administrator that all project revenues have been delivered to the EDCs, which are to be refunded to ratepayers, with appropriate exceptions.

ii. Qualified OSW projects shall immediately make up any PJM revenue shortage to the EDCs to be refunded to ratepayers, except to the extent the OSW project retained PJM revenues for an allowable use such as reserve fund;

4. When an OSW project has reached the end of its 20-year term during the energy year, the Board shall confirm that all PJM revenues associated with, or necessary for, the project ending its 20-year term have been submitted to the EDCs to be refunded to ratepayers;

5. The EDCs shall submit as part of their annual filings, the revenues received from the OSW developers as verified by the OREC administrator to be credited against the OREC surcharge for the benefit of ratepayers or otherwise credited to the ratepayers as directed by the Board. The OREC administrator shall compare these filings with the annual OREC administrator reports to ensure that all revenues due to ratepayers were provided to the EDCs and that all of those revenues have been credited to the ratepayers as directed by the Board;

6. The OREC administrator shall review and report on all OREC administrator transactions and accounts, including those that took place during the annual true up. All reports or findings of this review shall be provided to the Board, each of the EDCs, Rate Counsel, and shall be made available to the public on a website;

7. The OREC administrator, in consultation with the Board shall, at the end of the annual true up, conduct a review of the OSW carve-out and annual ratepayer surcharge amount and, if necessary, recommend adjustments to the OSW carve-out and the ratepayer surcharge;

8. All adjustments to the RPS shall be made three years in advance, if at the end of the annual true up it is determined that:

i. All qualified OSW projects have submitted no more than their annual OREC allowance, but have ORECs remaining; and

ii. All suppliers have met their OSW carve-out requirement through the purchase of ORECs. Qualified OSW projects may hold any ORECs for an additional two years or sell the ORECs for Class I RPS compliance;

9. Adjustments to the OSW purchase percentage if set too low, within 30 days following the receipt of a notice of insufficient OREC demand by the OREC administrator, EDC, or a qualified OSW project, the Board shall direct the OREC administrator to adjust the OSW purchase percentage;

10. If the OREC administrator determines that there are not enough ORECs in a given year to meet the suppliers' obligation, and there are no banked ORECs available, the OREC administrator may direct the EDCs, as the suppliers' payment agent, to make OACP payments, from the pre-collected OREC surcharge funds, to satisfy the RPS; and

11. The qualified OSW project shall retain ownership of any excess ORECs. The qualified OSW project, at its sole discretion, may use excess ORECs in either of the following ways:

i. Hold the excess ORECs in order to submit them to the EDC for payment in a future month or year in which the project might have a production deficit; or

ii. Apply the excess ORECs toward the OSW carve-out during the OREC lifetime.

Notes

N.J. Admin. Code § 14:8-6.7

Adopted by 51 N.J.R. 219(b), effective 2/19/2019