New Jersey Administrative Code
Title 14 - PUBLIC UTILITIES
Chapter 8 - RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Subchapter 2 - RENEWABLE PORTFOLIO STANDARDS
Section 14:8-2.2 - Definitions

The following words and terms, when used in this subchapter, shall have the following meanings, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:

"Alternative compliance payment" or "ACP" means a payment of a certain dollar amount per megawatt hour, which a supplier/provider may submit to comply with the class I or class II renewable energy requirement in Table A in 14:8-2.3.

"Attribute" means a characteristic associated with electricity generated using a particular renewable fuel, such as its generation date, facility geographic location, unit vintage, emissions output, fuel, State program eligibility, or other characteristic that can be identified, accounted, and tracked.

"Bioenergy crop" means plants cultivated and harvested specifically for use as fuel for the purpose of generating electricity.

"Biomass" has the same meaning as that assigned to this term in Executive Order No. 13134, published in the Federal Register on August 16, 1999. Executive Order No. 13134 defines biomass as ". . . any organic matter that is available on a renewable or recurring basis (excluding old-growth timber), including dedicated energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crop residues, aquatic plants, wood and wood residues, animal wastes, and other waste materials."

"Black liquor" means a viscous liquid containing inorganic chemicals and organic material such as lignin and aliphatic acids, which is separated from wood during chemical pulping.

"Energy portfolio" means all of the electrical energy supplied by a particular electric power supplier or basic generation service provider to New Jersey retail customers.

"Energy year" or "EY" means the 12-month period from June 1st through May 31st and shall be numbered according to the calendar year in which it ends.

"Fuel cell" means an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy in a hydrogen or hydrogen-rich fuel directly into electricity, without combustion.

"Generation Attribute Tracking System" or "GATS" means the platform providing Renewable Portfolio Standard and Environmental Compliance rule facilitation services to the 13 member states of PJM Interconnection LLC. GATS creates RECs based upon metered electricity supplied by project owners or their representatives and tracks RECs through the various transactions, which ultimately result in retirement for RPS compliance purposes.

"Geothermal energy" means energy generated by a steam turbine, driven by hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the earth's crust.

"Installed capacity obligation" means the requirement for an electric power supplier or basic generation service provider to obtain an amount of electrical generation capacity to meet load service obligations under the reliability rules of PJM Interconnection. Installed capacity includes the generation capacity which a company considers part of its own electric system, including wholly owned units, jointly-owned units, non-utility generation (NUGs), and purchases.

"Offshore wind renewable energy certificate" or "OREC" shall mean as defined at 14:8-6.1.

"Old-growth timber" means wood or plant matter taken from a forest in the late successional stage of forest development, including plant matter taken from the forest floor. Late successional forests contain live and dead trees of various sizes, species, composition, and age class structure. The age and structure of old-growth timber varies significantly by forest type and from one biogeoclimatic zone to another.

"Qualification life" means, for any solar electric generation facility, the period beginning on the date on which the facility was authorized to energize under NJ.A.C. 14:8-5.8, or its equivalent at PJM Interconnect LLC, and ending on the first May 31 that is at least 10 years after the date of authorization to energize. A solar facility's qualification life applies to the facility itself, and to each piece of equipment included in the facility, regardless of any interruption in the solar facility's operation; or of any disassembly, relocation, sale, or transfer of any piece of equipment included in the facility.

"Renewable Energy Certificate" or "REC" means a certificate representing the environmental benefits or attributes of one megawatt-hour of generation from a generating facility that produces class I or class II renewable energy, but shall not include a solar renewable energy certificate.

"Renewable fuel" means a fuel that is naturally regenerated over a short time scale and is either derived from the sun (such as thermal, photochemical or photoelectric), or from other natural sources such as wind, hydropower, geothermal and tidal energy, or photosynthetic energy stored in biomass. This term does not include a fossil fuel, a waste product from a fossil source, or a waste product from an inorganic source.

"Resource recovery facility" means a solid waste facility that incinerates solid waste for the purposes of producing energy and recovering metals and other materials for reuse, which the Department of Environmental Protection has determined to be in compliance with current environmental standards, including, but not limited to, all applicable requirements of the Federal Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 7401 et seq.

"Solar alternative compliance payment" or "SACP" means a payment of a certain dollar amount per megawatt-hour (MWh), which a supplier/provider may submit to the Board to comply with the solar electric generation requirements under 48:3-87.

"Solar electric generating facility" or "solar facility" means equipment used to produce solar electric generation, as defined at 14:8-1.2.

"Solar renewable energy certificate" or "SREC" means a certificate issued by the Board or its designee, which represents one megawatt-hour (MWh) of solar energy that is generated by a facility connected to the distribution system in New Jersey, and has value based upon, and driven by, the energy market.

"Transition Incentive ("TI")-Eligible Project" means a solar electric generation facility that registered its intent to participate in the SREC market pursuant to N.J.A.C. 14:8-10.4(a)after October 29, 2018, and has maintained its SREC eligibility, but has not commenced commercial operations before the Board determines that the State has attained 5.1 percent of its retail sales from solar electric generation facilities. Following the closure of the SREC Program, the Board shall allow projects that meet the TI eligibility requirements an opportunity to register to participate in the TI Program until the establishment of a registration program for a solar Successor Incentive Program.

"Transition Renewable Energy Certificate" or "TREC" means a certificate issued by the Board or its designee, representing the environmental attributes of one megawatt-hour of electric generation from a TI-Eligible Project.

"TREC Administrator" means the agent jointly procured and/or assigned by the State's Electric Distribution Companies to utilize the Generation Attribute Tracking System to procure and allocate TRECs pursuant to this subchapter.

"True-up period" means a period, as determined by the Board, of no less than 120 days following the end of the energy year by which a BGS provider or TPS must demonstrate compliance with the RPS for that energy year.

"Voluntary clean electricity market" or "voluntary clean electricity program" means any program, system, market or procedure through which retail electric customers may elect to purchase a class I (including solar) or class II renewable energy product on a voluntary basis. New Jersey's Voluntary Clean Power Choice Program is a voluntary clean electricity program.