(Indiana) Voluntary Clean Energy Portfolio Standard Program

Source: International Energy Agency
Last updated: 2 February 2023

Under 2012 Indiana's Voluntary Clean Energy Portfolio Standard Program (Indiana Code Title 8 Article 1 Chapter 37), regulated electric utilities qualify for financial incentives if they meet specific targets ("clean portfolio standard goal") for including clean energy resources in their generation and supply portfolios. The goals are as follows:

  1. From 2013 - 2018: an average of at least four percent (4%) of the total electricity obtained by the participating electricity supplier to meet the energy requirements of its Indiana retail electric customers during the base year;
  2. From 2019 - 2024: an average of at least seven percent (7%) of the total electricity obtained by the participating electricity supplier to meet the energy requirements of its Indiana retail electric customers during the base year; and
  3. In the calendar year ending 31 December 2025, at least ten percent (10%) of the total electricity obtained by the participating electricity supplier to meet the energy requirements of its Indiana retail electric customers during the base year.

For monitoring, each participating electricity supplier is required to report to the commission annually on: (1) the supplier's efforts to meet the CPS goal; (2) the total amount of renewable energy supplied to the participating electricity supplier's Indiana retail electric customers with a breakdown of certain information; (3) the number of clean energy credits purchased; (4) the supplier's plans for meeting the CPS goal over the following year; (5) advances in clean energy technology; and (6) any other information that the commission prescribes in the rules it adopts, the guidelines for which are found in Section 10. To meet its goals, a participating electricity supplier may own or purchase one or more clean energy credits.

Section 4 lists the following as clean energy resources:

  1. Energy from wind.
  2. Solar energy.
  3. Photovoltaic cells and panels.
  4. Dedicated crops grown for energy production.
  5. Organic waste biomass
  6. Hydropower
  7. Fuel cells
  8. Hydrogen
  9. Energy from waste to energy facilities, including energy derived from advanced solid waste conversion technologies.
  10. Energy storage systems or technologies
  11. Geothermal energy
  12. Coal bed methane
  13. Industrial byproduct technologies that use fuel or energy that is a byproduct of an industrial process
  14. Waste heat recovery from capturing and reusing the waste heat in industrial processes for heating or for generating mechanical or electrical work
  15.  A source, technology, or program approved by the commission and designated as a clean energy resource by a rule adopted by the commission
  16. Demand side management or energy efficiency initiatives that reduce electricity consumption or implement load management, demand response, or energy efficiency measures designed to shift customers' electric loads from periods of higher demand to periods of lower demand as a result of equipment installed, or customers enrolled, after 1 January 2010.
  17. A clean energy project described
  18. Nuclear energy.
  19. Electricity that is generated by a customer owned distributed generation facility that is interconnected to the electricity supplier's distribution system in accordance with the commission's interconnection standards and supplied back to the electricity supplier for use in meeting the electricity supplier's electricity demand requirements in accordance with the commission's net metering rules
  20. Combined heat and power systems
  21. Electricity that is generated from natural gas at a facility constructed in Indiana after 1 July 2011, which displaces electricity generation from an existing coal fired generation facility

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