Or. Admin. Code § 860-150-0600

Current through Register Vol. 63, No. 11, November 1, 2024

Section 860-150-0600 - Renewable Natural Gas Compliance Reports

(1) A large natural gas utility or a small natural gas utility that participates in the RNG program described in these rules must file an annual compliance report for each year that the utility participates in the program by making RNG purchases or qualified investments. Each compliance report will cover a calendar year, beginning January 1 through and including December 31. The first report is due on June 30 of the year following the first compliance year, and then annually on June 30 thereafter for as long as the utility continues to participate in the program.

(2) Each annual compliance report must include but not be limited to:

(a) The total volume of RNG acquired during the compliance year by type or source, including the volume as a percentage of the gas utility's sales load delivered to retail customers;

(b) A detailed description of the natural gas utility's expenditures that year on RNG purchases and on qualified investments;

(c) A summary of all transactions that year involving RTCs purchased, acquired, sold, transferred, or retired to comply with these rules;

(d) A list of all RTCs that the utility owned and that expired during the compliance year before the utility was able to retire them. The list must be accompanied by information about the value and source of these expired RTCs as well as an explanation for why the utility was not able to retire them prior to expiration;

(e) The number of unused, unexpired RTCs in the natural gas utility's possession at the end of the compliance year, and the utility's plan to fully utilize these certificates;

(f) The range of carbon intensity values and the average intensity value associated with the RTCs retired that year;

(g) Detailed information about qualified investments made during the compliance year, including but not limited to:

(A) The name of the facility where the qualified investment was made;

(B) The location of the facility where the qualified investment was made, including the city/town, county, and state;

(C) The type of facility. For example, the facility type includes but is not limited to a livestock feeding operation, a wastewater treatment plant, a food waste processing facility, a renewable-electricity-to-hydrogen, facility, and so forth;

(D) The total quantity of RNG produced by or procured from that facility during the compliance year;

(E) The expected future annual quantity of RNG to be produced by or procured from that facility;

(F) The average RNG output of the facility expressed in standard cubic feet per minute;

(G) The disposition of RNG produced by the facility but delivered to non-retail utility customers or to non-Oregon customers;

(H) The number and value of RTCs acquired along with the RNG produced by the facility;

(I) An estimate of the carbon intensity for RNG produced at the facility and using an appropriate pathway, pursuant to OAR 860-150-0050.

(3) A large natural gas utility's annual compliance report must also include a detailed explanation of why the utility achieved, or did not achieve, that year's RNG target volume as specified in ORS 757.396, to include identifying challenges or barriers to RNG market growth.

(4) A large natural gas utility must explain how annual RNG purchases and qualified investments made during the compliance year aligned with the actions described in the utility's most recently acknowledged integrated resource plan.

(5) A large natural gas utility's annual compliance report must include the total annual incremental costs incurred during the compliance year, calculated as described in OAR 860-150-0200, and expressed as a percentage of the utility's total revenue requirement from its most recent normalized results of operations report.

(6) A small natural gas utility's annual compliance report must include the total costs incurred during the compliance year for RNG purchases and qualified investments, expressed as a percentage of the utility's total revenue requirement approved by the Commission in its most recent general rate revision.

(7) A small natural gas utility's annual compliance report must include the total volume of RNG acquired during the compliance year, as well as this volume expressed as a percentage of the total volume of gas delivered to customers that year.

Or. Admin. Code § 860-150-0600

PUC 5-2020, adopt filed 07/17/2020, effective 7/17/2020

Statutory/Other Authority: ORS 756, 757

Statutes/Other Implemented: ORS 757.394