Connecticut Green Power Purchase Plan

In April 2004, Connecticut’s governor signed an executive order directing state government agencies and universities to purchase an increasing amount of electricity generated by renewable resources. Under terms of the order, the state government has a goal to increase “Class I” renewable energy purchases to 20% of electricity used in 2010, 50% in 2020 and 100% in 2050. The order also authorizes the use of savings generated by state energy efficiency and conservation projects to fund green power purchases.

Class I renewable energy resources include solar, wind, new sustainable biomass, landfill gas, fuel cells (using renewable or non-renewable fuels), ocean thermal power, wave or tidal power, low-emission advanced renewable-energy conversion technologies, and new run-of-the-river hydropower facilities with a maximum capacity of five megawatts (MW).

In 2006, Governor Rell issued Connecticut’s Energy Vision for a Cleaner, Greener State, which sets a separate set of goals for the state. Specifically, it states that by 2020, 20% of all energy used and sold in the State will come from green renewable (clean) resources. See the Energy Vision for additional goals.

The State of Connecticut has made the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Top 50 Green Power Partnership (R) list from 2009-2014. Estimates of electricity use by State government for 2015 represent 93,615,352 KWh of green power, of 15% of Connecticut state government’s electric load.

Connecticut’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) was created in 1998 and has been revised several times since then. The RPS requires that increasing amounts of electricity sold in the state be generated from renewable resources, reaching 40% by 2030. The RPS also requires that an additional 4% be produced from either renewable resources or trash-to-energy facilities. Another 4% must come from commercial and industrial combined-heat-and-power or waste-heat recovery systems or from conservation or demand-side management project savings.