Commercial, Energy Procurement, Industrial, Utilities, Commercial, Finance, Industrial, Sourcing Renewables  -  October 28, 2016

Utility green tariffs on the rise, new report finds

In partial response to demand from large commercial and industrial energy users, the number of green tariff options provided by U.S. utilities increased significantly in 2016, a new report has found. 

The World Resources Institute report, "Emerging Green Tariffs in US Regulated Electricity Markets," shows that as of September 2016, regulated utilities in the United States have created 10 green tariff options, twice the number that existed at the end of 2015, the report's authors wrote in an Oct. 27 WRI blog post. 

As more and more businesses set renewable energy targets, their need for additional clean power, and strategies and mechanisms for obtaining it, have created pressure on their utilities and power providers to explore new ways of helping their large business customers. The report, done in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund, offers an updated list of emerging green tariff proposals and offerings for commercial and industrial customers in regulated markets in the United States. 

"The 10 green tariff options available or proposed today increase access to renewable energy in eight states and create the opportunity for large buyers like corporations and manufacturers to pursue hundreds of megawatts of new, renewable energy in the coming months," WRI contributors wrote in the blog post. "These emerging green tariffs have already helped usher in more wind and solar within traditional electricity markets that tend to rely more heavily on coal. Since 2015, more than 450 MW of new, additional solar were contracted via green tariffs, avoiding an estimated 554,000 metric tons of CO2 annually."

Bryn Baker, renewable energy manager at the World Wildlife Fund said Oct. 28 that the report can be used by utilities as a resource to benchmark their own offerings and understand different approaches. 

"By making this information more accessible and transparent, the hope is to continue to accelerate the development of cost-effective and customer-focused offerings across the country," she said. 

The full report is available in the Smart Energy Decisions research center. 

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