Promoting Green Power in Canada - Centre for Human Settlements

Promoting Green Power in Canada Pollution ProbeA tendency towards a national trackingsystem for TRCs can already be observed. Forexample, the US Center for ResourceSolutions is calling for such a system, andthe new Green-e certification rules alreadyallow for green tag trade between the US,Canada and Mexico, but require a trackingsystem to verify green power production andsales. New England’s NEPOOL started tobuild such a tracking scheme. Box 5.2 showshow the NEPOOL tracking system might bethe prototype of a North American trackingsystem. It supports information disclosure,compliance with renewable portfoliostandards and generation performancestandards, as well as unbundled REC tradingfor green power products. Another trackingsystem organised by the US EPA tracks NOxallowances and might also be an examplefor, or have to interface with, a green tagtracking system (see Box 5.3). The Center forResource Solutions has proposed the creationof an American Association of IssuingBodies, similar to the system developing inEurope. The Association would create basicrules under which the Issuing Bodies (IBs)would function, for example labelling andinformation requirements needed for greencertificates, which would incorporateEuropean requirements in order to facilitatefuture transcontinental trade. Definitions ofeligible power sources would be kept generaland inclusive, and the tradability in certainareas would depend on local circumstances(e.g., RPS rules). For example, NEPOOLcould become one such body, and the USRegional Transmission Organizations wouldbe candidates, as they all have generationdata available. Some IBs would be workingunder mandatory schemes (e.g., TexasERCOT, which administers RECs tradingunder the RPS), while others could bevoluntary green tag schemes. IBs would beresponsible for all certificates in a givenregion and would communicate all trades toall other IBs so no double-sales could occur.At a stakeholder meeting in March 2002,strong support for such a system was given,and several regions currently without IBsBox 5.3 — The EPA NATS DatabaseThis database was originally created forthe Acid Rain Program and was knownas the Allowance Tracking System, orATS. It has since been expanded toinclude nitrogen oxides (NOx)allowances issued under the OzoneTransport Commission (OTC) NOxBudget Program. For that program’suse, it is called the NOx AllowanceTracking System, or NATS.Functioning much like a bank, thesesystems are automated databases thattrack the allowances held by utilities,other affected companies, and otherorganizations or individuals. Theseallowances may be bought, sold, ortransferred at any time. Specifically,they track the issuance of allallowances, holdings of allowances inaccounts, holdings of allowances invarious allowance reserves, such asthe EPA Auction and Sale Reserve andthe Conservation and RenewableEnergy Reserve, the deduction ofallowances for compliance purposes,and the transfer of allowances betweenaccounts. Each allowance is a uniqueitem identified by a serial number. Thesystem is the official record of theircreation, transfer and use forcompliance purposes.The ATS provides the allowance marketwith a record of who is holdingallowances, the date of allowancetransfers and the allowancestransferred through a set of interactivereports that can be created online. TheATS does not, however, record theprice or other terms associated withallowance trades. Although submittingallowance transfers to EPA is voluntary,EPA expects most transfers to berecorded in the ATS. [EPA 2002b]138