Our Energy Portfolio

The information below shows which resources provided BED’s energy supply in 2020. 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 2020

Winter Peak MW	47.9
Summer Peak MW	58.7
Energy Use (MWH)	318,874

Resource	Fuel Type	Location	Capacity (MW)	Energy (MWH)
McNeil	Wood	Vermont	25.0	114,863
Hancock	Wind	Maine	13.5	35,253
Sheffield	Wind	Vermont	16.0	27,785
Georgia Mountain Community	Wind	Vermont	10.0	28,969
Hydro-Québec	Large Hydro	Quebec	n/a	33,183
NYPA	Large Hydro	New York	2.6	20,648
Winooski One	Small Hydro	Vermont	7.4	24,283
VEPPI	Small Hydro	Vermont	2.5	1,376
Vermont Standard Offer	Other Renewable	Vermont	4.4	0
Great River Hydro	Small Hydro	Vermont	n/a	43,920
Burlington	Solar	Vermont	3.4	5,157
BED Gas Turbine	Oil	Vermont	22.0	525
Short Term Purchases Net of Short Term Sales	Various (system mix)	New England	n/a	0
ISO New England Exchange – Net	Various (system mix)	New England	n/a	-17,089
Net Resales	Various (system mix)	New England	n/a	0

Total Net Purchases				335,962

BED Fuel Types and Renewability

CY 2020 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 CY2020, before BED sold RECs, renewable resources provided over 100% of the total energy used by BED. Renewable resources are inherently variable, so the amount of production in any year will fluctuate.

As BED generated and purchased more renewable energy than was used by all of Burlington, there were no short term energy purchases or ISO-NE Exchange position in the graph below.

CY 2020 BED Fuel Types – Prior to REC Transactions

NOTE: BED has no contracts for resources fueled by Natural Gas, Nuclear, or Coal. 0.16% of generated energy comes from Oil used at the BED Gas Turbine. The purchase profile exceeded sales by 8.3%. The above represents energy supplied and purchased by BED prior to REC sales.

CY 2020 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 CY2020 BED sold REC’s representing over 230,000 MWh of generation and received revenues of $$8,051,816 – equal to over 13% 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 2020, between RECs reserved/retired on BED’s own behalf, BED reserved/retired approximately 9,000 RECs in excess of its 2020 sales of 310,327 MWh. In total, BED reserved/retired 319,292 RECs from hydroelectric and solar resources. BED retired RECs in excess of sales to customers in order to account for distribution and transmission losses along with company use.