Our Energy Portfolio
The information below shows which resources provided BED’s energy supply in 2015. BED’s ability to claim that the energy used by its customers is renewable is affected by sales and purchases of Renewable Energy Credits (REC’s).
January-December 2015
| Winter Peak MW | 53.1 | |||
| Summer Peak MW | 63.1 | |||
| Energy Use (MWH) | 353,730 | |||
| Resource | Fuel Type | Location | Capacity (MW) | Energy (MWH) |
| McNeil | Wood | Vermont | 25.0 | 145,180 |
| Winooski One | Small Hydro | Vermont | 7.4 | 26,785 |
| NextEra Energy Power Marketing | Small Hydro | Maine | n/a | 43,800 |
| Sheffield | Wind | Vermont | 16.0 | 35,006 |
| Georgia Mountain Community Wind | Wind | Vermont | 10.0 | 33,145 |
| NYPA | Large Hydro | New York | 2.6 | 17,263 |
| Hydro-Québec | Large Hydro | Quebec | n/a | 4,880 |
| VEPPI | Small Hydro | Vermont | 2.2 | 7,456 |
| Vermont Standard Offer | Other Renewable | Vermont | 4.4 | 5,543 |
| Burlington Solar | Solar | Vermont | 0.9 | 1,117 |
| BED Gas Turbine | Oil | Vermont | 22.0 | 217 |
| ISO New England Exchange - Net | Various (system mix) | New England | n/a | 33,337 |
| Total Net Purchases | 353,730 |
BED Fuel Types and Renewability
Prior to Renewable Attribute “REC” Sales and Purchases
Sales of the right to claim renewability, called Renewable Energy Credits or REC's, are allowed under BED's integrated resource plan. REC sales help BED control the rate impacts of purchasing renewable resources (which are generally more expensive than the non-renewable alternatives). BED receives a portion of its energy through ownership in, or contract for, renewable resources before it sells or buys REC's. Sales of such rights affect BED's claim to what portion of the energy it provides to its customers is renewable. This avoids double counting since the purchasers of these rights will have the right to claim the renewability. For CY2015, before BED sold RECs, renewable resources provided over 90% of the total energy used by BED. Renewable resources are inherently variable, so the amount of production in any year will fluctuate. Two new resources, Hancock Wind and South 40 Solar, which were expected to produce electricity in CY2015, did not. They are still expected to come online in 2017.
The amounts shown in the graph below for natural gas, nuclear, coal or oil fired generating stations result from BED making short term energy purchases and sales that are not from any specific resource (“generic power”) or being a new purchase from ISO-NE (Exchange). In this case BED assumes that the fuel providing the energy is the same as the mix of fuels in New England after all REC transactions have been accounted for (called the New England residual mix).
Residual Mix for New England taken from NEPOOL GIS System Information: https://www.nepoolgis.com
After Accounting for Renewable Attribute “REC” Sales
Renewable resources are almost invariably more expensive than non-renewable resources, and REC’s have become an important cost reducing tool for the renewable electricity market. The sale of REC’s allows BED to support and generate new renewable resources, while controlling costs by selling REC’s to other entities. In CY2015 BED sold REC’s representing over 240,000 MW of generation and received revenues of $11,982,778 - equal to roughly 24% of its cost of service. As mentioned above, after making such sales, BED has to revise the amount of energy it claims as renewable. This is the reason for the increase in the natural gas, nuclear, coal and oil “pie slices" from the above graph, to the one shown below.
After Accounting for Renewable Attribute “REC” Sales and Purchases
BED can reclaim renewability by purchasing Class II renewable energy credits from the renewable resource market (at prices significantly lower than Class I REC sales). Contracting for the purchase of REC’s created from a particular type of renewable resource (like small hydro), allows BED to return to a more positive renewable position as shown in graph below, while still placing some pressure on the markets to create additional renewable resources.
For 2015, between RECs reserved/retired on BED’s own behalf, BED reserved/retired 5,079 RECs in excess of its 2015 load of 353,730 MWh. In total, BED reserved/retired 358,809 RECs from hydroelectric, biomass and solar resources.
