As of the date of this blog, PG&E is oversubscribed for the RES-BCT program. SCE and SDG&E have limited availability left until they reach their caps.
We recommend you work with an experienced developer to confirm availability with the utility, as these are first-come, first-served opportunities with each utility getting a proportional share of a 250MW statewide cap.
The rapid growth of the solar power industry has provided many opportunities for local governments and universities nationwide – especially in California, where particularly attractive renewable energy state laws are helping to boost savings and operational efficiency.
But as is the case with any state, California’s legal landscape can be challenging for any organization to navigate, leaving potentially beneficial solar programs falling through the cracks.
Such is the case with California’s Renewable Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer (RES-BCT) program.
Despite its many benefits, RES-BCT lacks widespread recognition. Even if you’re aware of the program, you may not have quite enough background information to make a strong case to stakeholders and leadership about how it can be leveraged when investing in solar.
This RES-BCT guide can help.
Keep reading for a comprehensive overview of what RES-BCT is, who it benefits, how your organization can take advantage of it and a real-world example of how one California wastewater utility has leveraged it to offset various electrical meters throughout its operations.
What Is RES-BCT? An Overview of the Program
Simply put: RES-BCT is a California-based renewable energy initiative that allows local governments and college campuses to generate renewable energy through solar energy and related technologies. The organizations then have the option to transfer leftover energy to California’s public utility energy grid.
All energy transferred back to the grid earns generation credits, which can be transferred to designated accounts within an organization.
In doing so, RES-BCT helps to provide greater incentives to local governments and campuses to invest in solar.
Who Is Eligible for RES-BCT?
If you are considering participating in RES-BCT renewable energy generation for your organization, you’ll first want to make sure that you meet the specific criteria for eligibility.
Under California law, you can participate in RES-BCT if you are a local government or a campus that is defined as follows:
- Local governments: Local public agencies that don’t sell exported electricity to third parties. Eligible local governments include California cities, counties, municipalities, school districts, special districts, or other local public agencies.
- Campuses: Any California community college campus or individual campus in the University of California or California State University systems.
Geographic and Technical Requirements
If your organization meets the criteria as either a local government or a campus, the next step is to see if you meet the technical requirements for eligibility:
- You must be able to generate renewable energy that meets the conditions in the California Renewables Portfolio Standard Program.
- Your energy generation must operate within the boundaries of the eligible local government or campus.
- Each generating account within the geographic area must generate 5 megawatts or less of renewable energy.
- All renewable energy generation must be owned and operated by a legally eligible local government or campus.
- Energy generation must be sized to offset the local government or campus’s energy consumption.
- Your generating account must be a designated retail service account located within the premises of an eligible local government or campus.
- Your generating account must use a Time-of-Use rate schedule.
- Your generating account must offset the energy consumed by property owned or operated by your eligible local government or campus.
- You must have an interconnection agreement with your utility provider.
How Does the RES-BCT Program Work?
While participation in the RES-BCT program can undoubtedly benefit local governments and university campuses, your organization’s stakeholders will want to consider a few key points before making their decision.
Understanding the ins and outs of RES-BCT system requirements, credit systems, and billing considerations can help clarify major questions they may have and improve your chances of success with the program.
Setting Up Solar Energy Systems
To participate in the RES-BCT program, an organization must own or operate property where solar generation systems can be installed. Additionally, the solar project must be within the same county and serviced by the same energy utility provider as the participant.
Once the solar energy system is installed and receives “permission to operate,” the utility will install a meter to measure kilowatt-hours of energy production. (The solar project should not exceed annual energy consumption from all (combined and benefitting) accounts.)
The meters monitor the participant’s energy input and output to determine bill credit earnings.
Generating and Transferring Bill Credits
Once the metered solar project is set up, participants can designate up to 50 benefiting accounts to receive credits from the energy returned to the grid.
The transferring bill credits you accumulate from your generated energy will be taken out of the monthly energy bill from each of your benefitting accounts. If you have multiple benefitting accounts, you will determine beforehand what percentage of your overall generating credits gets applied to each account.
Billing and Financial Considerations
The RES-BCT plan rate is limited and only available to local entities on a first-come, first-served basis. Once a utility’s RES-BCT cap is reached, the program will close and all pending projects that have not yet met the requirements will be ineligible for RES-BCT.
Once you have set up your solar energy project, you can only export excess energy back to the public grid. The RES-BCT program does not allow you to sell the energy to a private third party.
How Can Organizations Benefit From RES-BCT?
The RES-BCT program offers financial, environmental, and operational benefits. Though specific benefits vary depending on your energy use, generation, benefitting accounts and other factors, long-term benefits make up for the costs and resource consumption of your initial investment in solar energy.
Financial Benefits
The most obvious benefit of the RES-BCT program is long-term financial savings.
When your organization returns solar energy to the grid, the resulting RES-BCT credits reduce energy costs from its designated accounts.
Though these savings may vary in amount initially, over time, they can save California local governments or college campuses a significant amount of money in energy costs.
These savings come in addition to the energy costs you have saved by generating renewable energy on your property.
Environmental Impact
Investing in solar also helps you reduce your carbon footprint by lowering carbon emissions associated with energy production.
Not only will you reduce your carbon emissions as a local government or campus by generating renewable energy on your property, but the energy you return to the interconnected grid reduces the overall carbon emissions for the energy generation of the system as a whole.
Operational Efficiency
By letting you allocate energy generation and financial credits to multiple accounts you operate, the RES-BCT tariff program also helps improve operational efficiency.
By offsetting energy in your designated befitting accounts, your organization can better grasp energy management and resource allocation across all of your properties.
Case Studies: How Central San Is Using RES-BCT
The RES-BCT program has already brought substantial benefits to local governments across California. Take Central Contra Costa County, for example.
Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (Central San) is a wastewater utility serving nearly 500,000 residents and over 15,000 businesses in central Contra Costa County.
One of Central San’s key objectives, identified in its Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan, is to optimize energy production and use while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
Central San hired ARC Alternatives to explore avenues for expanding its solar photovoltaic (PV) footprint and identify energy efficiency opportunities at its facilities. This would, in part, help Central San facilitate saving opportunities for its customers.
Working with ARC Alternatives and Central San, REC Solar designed, engineered, procured and constructed a 2.2 MW ground mount solar array on a repurposed portion of a 48-acre buffer property near Central San’s Martinez wastewater treatment plant. Central San and REC Solar worked closely with the existing tenant and the surrounding community to ensure the project had minimal disruption to the land and was not visible to the neighboring residents.
The low-profile, fixed-tilt ground mount array, designed to be optimal in both production and cost, offsets most of the annual grid demand of Central San’s treatment plant and major pumping stations through PG&E’s Renewable Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer (RES-BCT) program.
As part of the RES-BCT program, the solar array’s energy generation is injected locally onto the PG&E grid, providing offsets to the various electrical meters across Central San’s operation. This allows for the optimization of a local, centralized generation source that can provide benefit to the distributed infrastructure operated by Central San.
Financed as a 25-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) through REC Solar, Central San was able to shift the project from a costly capital expense to a predictable monthly payment with no price escalation. As part of the agreement, REC Solar will continue to own, operate and maintain the solar array over the life of the PPA.
The array is estimated to generate nearly $6 million in net electricity bill savings over the next 25 years.
Take Advantage of the RES-BCT Program
If you’re considering solar, now is the time to act.
Even without RES-BCT benefits, your organization can already save significantly on energy expenses by investing in solar energy generation. But the RES-BCT tariff program itself is an excellent — albeit overlooked — way to compound these savings across different properties you operate while increasing your energy savings.
The RES-BCT program is an excellent way for eligible local governments and campuses to reduce monthly energy bills for specific accounts on their property, lower their carbon footprint, and greatly improve their operational efficiency.
If your organization is considering solar, RES-BCT is the great additional considering doing so, RES-BCT may be a great additional incentive.