Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 23, December 10, 2024
Section 4 CCR 723-3-3663 - RES Compliance Report Review(a) RES compliance reporting for investor owned QRUs. (I) In the annual RES compliance report, the QRU must explain whether it complied with its RES and whether it satisfied the requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year.(II) Upon receipt of the QRU annual RES compliance report, the Commission will provide notice to interested persons. Interested persons will have 30 days within which to provide comment to the Commission on the content of the annual compliance report. The QRU shall have the opportunity to reply to all comments on or before 45 days following the filing of the annual compliance report.(III) Commission staff shall review the annual RES compliance report and any comments received and within 60 days of the filing of the annual compliance report make a recommendation to the Commission as to whether: (A) no action should be taken by the Commission because the QRU has met the RES and the requirements for renewable distributed generation and has correctly calculated the on-going annual net incremental costs for new eligible energy resources under subparagraph 3662(a)(XVI);(B) changes are needed to the RES compliance report; or(C) a hearing is necessary.(IV) Upon review of the QRU's annual RES compliance report, Commission staff recommendation and all comments filed, the Commission will issue an order stating whether: (A) the QRU complied with the RES during the most recently completed compliance year;(B) the QRU satisfied the requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year;(C) the QRU has correctly calculated the on-going annual net incremental costs for new eligible energy resources under subparagraph 3662(a)(XVI); and(D) a hearing is necessary.(V) If the Commission determines that the total number of RECs which the QRU generated or acquired from renewable energy systems during the most recently completed compliance year exceeded the total number of RECs which the QRU needed to comply with its RES or with its requirements for renewable distributed generation for the recently completed compliance year:(A) the Commission will state in its order the number of excess RECs which the QRU has available to carry forward from that compliance year or use for any other legal purpose; and(B) the QRU may use those excess RECs to comply with its RES or with its requirements for renewable distributed generation for the five compliance years immediately following that compliance year.(b) RES compliance report hearing for investor owned QRUs.(I) If the Commission determines that the QRU did not comply with its RES or with its requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year, the Commission will determine whether the QRU failed to meet the RES because of the retail rate impact limit. The Commission will state in its order:(A) the number of RECs by which the QRU failed to comply with its RES or with its requirements for renewable distributed generation; and(B) whether the Commission is satisfied that the failure to meet the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation was due to the retail rate impact limit. If the Commission is not satisfied on this issue, the Commission will issue a notice of possible noncompliance and schedule an evidentiary hearing on the matter.(II) At the evidentiary hearing, if the QRU asserts that the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation was not met due to the retail rate impact, it will have the burden of proof that it failed to comply with its RES or its requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year because of the retail rate impact.(III) At the evidentiary hearing, any party that advocates that the QRU failed to comply with the QRU's RES or its requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year is the proponent of a Commission order finding non-compliance, and that party shall have the burden of proof that the QRU failed to comply with the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year. The QRU may assert that the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation was not met due to events beyond the reasonable control of the QRU that could not have been reasonably mitigated.(IV) If the Commission determines that the QRU did not correctly calculate the on-going annual net incremental costs for new eligible energy resources under subparagraph 3662(a)(XVI), the Commission will determine the correct on-going annual net incremental costs to be applied in the retail rate impact calculation.(c) Compliance penalties for investor owned QRUs.(I) After notice and hearing, if the Commission determines that the QRU did not fully comply with its RES or with its requirements for renewable distributed generation during the most recently completed compliance year, the Commission shall determine what, if any, administrative penalties should be assessed against the QRU for its failure to meet the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation. In assessing penalties, the Commission may take one or more of the following actions.(A) Determine the cost that would have been incurred by the QRU to fully comply with the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation through the acquisition of RECs and assess all or part of this amount as part of an administrative penalty.(B) No administrative penalties shall be assessed against a QRU if the amount of the shortfall is attributable to the retail rate impact limit.(C) Assess no administrative penalties against a QRU if the failure to meet the RES or the requirements for renewable distributed generation results from events beyond the reasonable control of the QRU that could not have been reasonably mitigated including, but not limited to, failures to perform by counterparties to renewable energy supply contracts and renewable energy credit contracts, events that delay the construction or commercial operation of QRU-owned eligible renewable energy resources, and lack of customer interest in the SRO.(II) The cost of such administrative penalties shall not be recovered from retail customers through the QRU's rates.38 CR 17, September 10, 2015, effective 9/30/201539 CR 06, March 25, 2016, effective 4/14/201639 CR 08, April 25, 2016, effective 5/15/201640 CR 22, November 25, 2017, effective 12/15/201742 CR 03, February 10, 2019, effective 3/2/201942 CR 07, April 10, 2019, effective 4/30/201942 CR 09, May 10, 2019, effective 5/30/201943 CR 08, April 25, 2020, effective 5/15/202043 CR 12, June 25, 2020, effective 7/15/202043 CR 20, October 25, 2020, effective 11/14/202044 CR 13, July 10, 2021, effective 7/30/202144 CR 24, December 25, 2021, effective 1/14/202245 CR 18, September 25, 2022, effective 10/15/202246 CR 02, January 25, 2023, effective 2/14/2023