REBA could achieve its goals through an effective industry initiative in NAESB

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Dick Brooks of Reliable Energy Analytics offers insight into how industry collaboration can be the key to leading the way for future energy policy and legislation.

April 8, 2019 pv magazine

Image: Flickr

The REBA website says it all “The Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) is a membership association for businesses and organizations seeking to procure renewable energy across the United States”. “Large energy consumers have the buying power and collective voice that change markets.”

Yes, you do, REBA! Well stated. But as we all know, change in the electric industry can be quite elusive. What’s needed is an effective forum with a successful track record for bringing change to the energy industry, where regulators and energy industry participants work in collaboration with other stakeholders, including end users and service providers, to define consensus-based industry standards that ultimately become FERC and/or state regulations. The North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) has a proven, successful track record effecting nationwide changes in regulatory policies across the wholesale and retail electric industries, through the collaborative creation of industry standards that engage all stakeholders.

NAESB is an ANSI Standards Development Organization that employs a consensus-based process, open to all interested parties, similar to the IETF’s process, to develop standards. NAESB’s proven success at developing standards for both gas and electric industries, that become federal regulations, is key to effecting change within the industry. And NAESB’s standards are not limited to the federal level, many states have also adopted NAESB standards into regulations. In some cases, regulators have adopted NAESB standards verbatim (by reference) into regulations. For example, a NAESB standard called OASIS was adopted as a FERC regulation and has been used to successfully manage transmission capacity across North America for over 10 years.

The energy industry is changing rapidly. New capacity is coming onto the electric network daily from behind-the-meter rooftop solar and other distributed energy resources. REBA’s bold announcement is both timely and necessary in order to “refactor” the way in which electric supply capacity is secured to achieve a cleaner, greener environment for all of society to enjoy, while ensuring a reliable supply of electricity, nationwide.

A new proposal, called AOCE, is under development for consideration as a NAESB standard that aims to replace existing capacity markets, nationwide with a more flexible approach that prioritizes renewable capacity in order to meet state energy targets. Many of the objectives that REBA aspires to achieve are also the expressed objectives of AOCE. An AOCE standard would provide greater access to all parties, from small bakeries to large energy consumers, like data centers, to acquire the specific type of capacity they desire (wind, solar, hydro, etc.) for time periods they determine, i.e. weeks to years, at competitive market prices established using a bid/ask marketplace that operates 24×7. AOCE also enables buyers to execute a complete power purchase agreement (PPA) by specifying a percentage of revenue payable to the capacity buyer that is received by the generating resource owner from energy production revenues. Ownership of renewable energy certificates (RECs) are also specified in an AOCE transaction.

REBA members may wish to consider participating in a NAESB standards development initiative in order to advance their goals “to lead a rapid transition to a cleaner, prosperous, zero-carbon energy future.”

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