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The Pennsylvania PUC has released its 2023-24 Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards compliance report. 

From the Summary:

“This report was prepared in coordination with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and as further required by statute, is being provided to the Chairman and Minority Chairman of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee of the Senate and the Chairman and Minority Chairman of the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee of the House of Representatives. 

The Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act of 2004 (AEPS Act) identifies the energy resources that are eligible for consideration in the program. These resources are classified into two groups, Tier I and Tier II resources. Additionally, although solar photovoltaic is a Tier I resource, it has a standalone requirement. For each reporting period, the Electric Distribution Companies (EDCs) and Electric Generation Suppliers (EGSs) are required to acquire and retire Alternative Energy Credits (AECs) in quantities equal to a percentage of their total retail sales of electricity in Pennsylvania. This percentage gradually increased each year, through 2021. Each successive 12-month reporting year begins on June 1 and concludes on the following May 31, and compliance is monitored during this period. Throughout this report, the terms “reporting year” and “compliance year” are synonymous and used interchangeably. 

For the 2024 reporting year June 1, 2023, through May 31, 2024, the Tier I requirement was 8% of all retail sales, of which at least 0.5% of all retail sales was to come from solar photovoltaic (PV) sources. The requirement for Tier II resources was 10% of all retail sales. As required by Act 129 of 2008, additional alternative energy resources, as identified in the table in Appendix C of this report, were added to the Tier I group in 2009. To account for these additional resources, an annual adjustment to the broader Tier I, excluding the solar carveout, requirement was added. For this reporting year that adjustment is 0.2615% for a total Tier I requirement of 7.7615%. 

At the close of the 2024 reporting year, all the EDCs and all but eight EGSs met their requirements by acquiring and retiring sufficient AECs. Five EGSs came into compliance through the submission of alternative compliance payments. Two EGSs filed for bankruptcy shortly after the reporting year ended and one EGS, in bankruptcy since the previous year, continued to serve customers for the 2024 reporting year. The bankruptcies are discussed later in this report. Of the total number of AECs retired, 70.3% of AECs were generated within Pennsylvania. A more detailed breakdown of the retired AECs is provided in Chart 1, located in Section 1 of this report.”