MOC: RE Support Mechanisms

Everything on this page answers the demand side of the RE Act: once a renewable facility exists, what mechanism buys its output and at what price. Authority runs from Digest: RA 9513 — Renewable Energy Act of 2008 through the RE Act IRR (Digest: DC2009-05-0008 — Rules and Regulations Implementing RA 9513 , filed under MOC: Framework IRRs ), with the ERC setting or approving every price ceiling below. Chains here are amendment chains rather than supersession chains — only the original Green Energy Auction policy was actually replaced; the two GEAP guidelines in force have each been amended twice or three times without being superseded, so the operative text of either is the base circular as modified by the entries nested under it.

Belongs here: a circular that establishes or amends a mechanism for remunerating or contracting renewable output — an auction, a tariff, an option programme, an offset arrangement. Circulars about how an RE project is permitted, contracted, or sited belong in MOC: RE Project Development ; the RPS obligation that creates demand for these mechanisms belongs in MOC: RPS and the Renewable Energy Market .

Green Energy Auction Program

• Digest: DC2021-11-0036 — Revised GEAP Guidelines — Revised GEAP guidelines. The operative auction framework: eligible capacity (post-RE Act facilities without existing supply agreements; pre-RE Act plants only for incremental capacity), the Green Energy Tariff (GET) as a pay-as-bid price, and the ERC-set Green Energy Auction Reserve price ceiling per technology. Runs Notice of Auction → GEAR price → Terms of Reference → electronic bidding → Certificate of Award → Certificate of Endorsement, administered by the Green Energy Auction Committee. Distribution utilities may opt in directly to winning bidders (Opt-In Mechanism (GEAP) ), carving volumes out of the FIT-All fund. Start here for how a GEA round is run and priced. (2021)
  • Lineage: supersedes Digest: DC2020-07-0017 (Original GEA Policy) . Amended three times, all in force: Digest: DC2023-09-0027 — GET=FIT Clarification Amendment to DC2021-11-0036 (2023 — §9.13, the GET is the FIT and not a separate charge against the FIT-All fund), Digest: DC2025-03-0004: GET Indexation, COA Eligibility, and NOA Amendment to DC2021-11-0036 (2025 — Certificate of Authority holders become Qualified Suppliers, newspaper publication of the Notice of Auction dropped, GET made subject to annual ERC indexation), and Digest: DC2025-06-0009: One-Time GET Indexation Clarification (Amendment to DC2025-03-0004) (2025 — that indexation narrowed to a single one-time adjustment per winning bidder).
• Digest: DC2023-10-0029 — Non-FIT-Eligible RE Technologies in the GEAP — Non-FIT-eligible technologies in the GEAP. The parallel auction track for geothermal, impounding and Pumped-Storage Hydropower (PSH) in GEAP , and any emerging technology the DOE declares — the technologies the FIT was never designed for. ERC approves the parameters within 90 days; the GEA-BEAC screens compliance; settlement runs through Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) , with shortfalls collected pro rata from market buyers and surpluses flowed back. Start here for auction treatment of dispatchable and storage-linked renewables. (2023)
  • Lineage: amended by Digest: DC2024-03-0010 — ERC PDM Authority Amendment to DC2023-10-0029 (2024 — directs the ERC to promulgate a Price Determination Methodology and rebuilds the bid-evaluation sequence around it) and Digest: DC2024-09-0028: PSH Settlement Amendment to DC2023-10-0029 (2024 — a separate pumped-storage settlement mechanism priced on available capacity rather than energy, and its integration into the energy and Reserve Market and Electricity Derivatives (WESM) ).
• Digest: DC2020-07-0017 (Original GEA Policy) — Original Green Energy Auction policy. Superseded, but the origin of the design: GEAR price set by the ERC each 31 May by technology, grid, and peak/off-peak; supply-only versus integrated auctions; automatic qualification of all mandated participants; and a Green Energy Implementation Agreement as the contracting instrument. Start here only for the pre-2021 auction design or to trace where a current GEAP concept came from. (2020, lapsed 2021-11-03)

Other support mechanisms

• Digest: DC2018-07-0019: Promulgating the Rules and Guidelines Governing the Establishment of the Green Energy Option Program — Green Energy Option Program. Lets an end-user choose its own RE supplier rather than take default supply: eligibility at 100 kW average monthly peak demand, RE suppliers permitted by the DOE through the Renewable Energy Management Bureau (REMB) , dual billing that separates the supplier’s generation charge from the DU’s and TransCo’s wires charges, and the DU as supplier of last resort. Renewable Energy Certificates from a GEOP contract credit to the DU’s RPS compliance. Start here for voluntary end-user RE sourcing (Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) ). (2018)
  • Lineage: amended by Digest: DC2020-04-0009: Guidelines Governing the Issuance of Operating Permits to Renewable Energy Suppliers under the Green Energy Option Program (2020 — RE Supplier operating-permit procedure: application/qualification requirements, REMB’s 20-working-day evaluation, 5-year permit validity, annual reporting, and escalating suspension/revocation penalties).
• Digest: DC2020-10-0022 — Enhanced net metering. Tightens the Net Metering Program programme: a one-calendar-year banking period for credits with year-end forfeiture, a bar on being a net generator at year-end (so systems cannot be oversized), extension to off-grid and island systems, mandatory DU publication of hosting capacity per feeder, and a two-year DOE/ERC review cycle. Start here for the rules governing an on-site system that offsets its own consumption. (2020)
• Digest: DC2023-12-0035 (ERSP Policy) — Expanded Roof-Mounted Solar Program. Covers rooftop solar above 100 kWp, deliberately outside net metering: three business models — a supply-contingency option for voluntary export during shortages, a lease-to-generate option where a Roof-Mounted Solar Provider leases roof space and exports everything (requiring a Solar Energy Operating Contract and a CSP sale), and restricted peer-to-peer trading within a contiguous area. Start here for commercial-scale rooftop solar (Expanded Roof-Mounted Solar Program (ERSP) ). (2023)
• Digest: DC2015-07-0014: 30% RE Share Policy and FiT Auction Mandate — 30% RE share policy and the FiT auction mandate. Sets the policy target of at least a 30% renewable share of generation capacity, raises the FiT installation targets to 500 MW solar and 400 MW wind, and — the durable part — directs that once those targets are subscribed, succeeding rounds be allocated by auction rather than by queue. The bridge from the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) System to the GEAP. Start here for why the auction exists at all. (2015)

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