Submission on the IESO’s Clean Energy Credit Registry

In response to a Ministry of Energy request, the IESO has outlined an approach and options for a voluntary Clean Energy Credits (CECs) registry based on the Environmental Attributes (EAs) of electricity generation (i.e. emissions properties). Mostly due to internal IESO concerns, the IESO presented no viable options for fully achieving the government’s objectives to decarbonize Ontario’s energy system, flow proceeds to ratepayers, and help businesses attract jobs and investment. The PWU reiterated its prior recommendations and identified a pathway for the IESO to overcome its concerns: Government should clarify that ratepayers own the EAs and the IESO can sell them on their behalf; The IESO should track the hourly clean energy EA production so that the CECs can be used for compliance in Ontario’s Emissions Performance Standard (EPS); the full price of carbon should be applied to gas-fired generation; and, the value of a CEC should reflect the premium cost of the clean energy versus the cost of gas fired generation.

Download the report here