Supplying 14 percent of customers electric demand, Massachusetts Municipal Light Plants (MLPs) are not required to comply with the Commonwealth’s Renewable Portfolio Standard or Clean Energy Standard. Both standards aim to reduce emissions from the electric sector by requiring increasing shares of electric sales to the other 86 percent of Massachusetts customers to be derived from renewable resources like wind or solar.
Instead, starting in 2030 MLPs will be required to follow the provisions of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard that does not require additional renewable resources for compliance. While MLPs could choose to meet the GGES with wind and solar, they are not required to, and could meet the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standard with no additional wind or solar generation. AEC’s recent presentation on the topic demonstrates that requiring MLPs to comply with the Renewable Portfolio Standard would result in substantially higher levels of wind and solar in the Commonwealth today and into the future.
According to data analysis performed by the Massachusetts Climate Action Network, just 2 percent of total MLP electric sales were derived from renewable energy sources in 2020. In contrast, Clean Energy Standard requires investor-owned utilities (National Grid, Eversource, and Unitil) to certify 20 percent of their electric sales as renewable in 2020. In 2030, Clean Energy Standard requires investor-owned utilities to have 60 percent renewable electric sales; MLP’s requirement for wind and solar derived resources will still be zero.
MLP’s exemption from the Renewable Portfolio Standard hinders the Commonwealth’s efforts to meet statewide climate targets and supports MLP’s continued reliance on fossil fuel resources.
