Zero Emission Electricity

• Immediately advance a short-term renewable electricity strategy.
  • Begin a focused outreach to key New York electricity supply market participants immediately; continuously and actively monitor the market for the foreseeable future.
  • Key market participants include other large NYC customers, generation owners and developers, Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), transmission operators, intermediaries, and key regulators.
• Continuously and actively monitor the market for the foreseeable future and discuss at working group, to inform a more detailed mid- and long-term procurement strategy.
• Look for opportunities to help shape the regulatory and market environment in a manner that is consistent with science and Columbia’s interests.
• Expand the examination of technical and economic feasibility of developing renewable generation on Columbia campuses.

Pivotal to Columbia achieving sustainability goals and science-based targets.

• Electrification is key to achieving University net zero emissions goals and science-based targets, including total cumulative emissions by the net zero year.
• To electrify, University decision makers must understand the full cost – including RE supply costs.

Upcoming electrification study will provide infrastructure path and costs (capital); but requires renewable electricity supply costs (operating) to provide full picture.

• Central Plant Electrification study, targeted for completion in May 2022, will generate proposed infrastructure changes/costs and volumetric information required to forecast fossil fuel usage decreases and electricity volume increases.
• To accurately forecast the “true cost” for Columbia to electrify, an estimated supply cost for fuel and electricity is required.
  • Request for Proposal (RFP) for the Central Plant Electrification Study calls for Columbia to provide renewable electricity specs and supply costs.
  • Therefore, electrification and renewable electricity action are interrelated and must happen in parallel.

Renewable electricity is key to achieving the University’s science-based targets.

• To ensure the University achieves science-based targets set forth to meet the President’s net zero emissions commitment, there must be clear renewable electricity strategy to meet existing and future electricity needs

Columbia’s first objective in terms of defining future requirements is determining the amount of electricity each year within each planning period (see below), that will be needed to meet both existing loads as they are reduced by aggressive energy efficiency, as well as new loads that materialize due to electrification of fossil-fueled campus utility equipment and campus expansion. An estimate of future electricity requirements will by definition need to be expressed as a range given the level of uncertainty around a number of assumptions. Columbia will also need to estimate what portion of its electrical requirements will need to be supplied from LL97 eligible sources to avoid penalties for exceeding increasingly stringent building carbon intensity limits over time.

Once the University’s clean electricity needs are quantified, Columbia will be seeking alternatives to the brown power it buys today. The process of identifying viable RE options, evaluating alternatives, and making commitments, begins in 2021 with an initial approach to the market, as described below. Columbia will be seeking an understanding of just what it can obtain and when, beginning with a search in 2021 for any options that will allow an accelerated transition away from using National RECs.

A critical aspect of successfully matching Columbia’s climate leadership principles with available short and long-term RE supply, begins by defining, then being guided by specifications specific to Columbia.

Renewable Electricity Specifications

As Columbia moves to approach the market, the following will guide the University’s specifications:

• 100% zero emission electricity
• The following technologies are acceptable/a priority:
  • Wind, solar, and other intermittent RE resources
  • Intermittent resources combined with storage (e.g., battery electric storage)
  • Hydro, geothermal, biomass, other
  • Generation burning renewable fuels (e.g., hydrogen, landfill gas, etc.)
  • Nuclear
• Zero emissions electricity should be “time matched” to load (“24/7”) as is becoming best practice in forward thinking organizations seeking to secure zero emissions electricity
• Zero emissions resources located nearer to Columbia’s local grid have higher value
• Columbia will seek to link efforts to research and learning opportunities

For the planning period of 2021 to 2024, Columbia’s commitment to net zero emissions will include a push away from its initial offset strategy toward a proactive and grid-leveraging strategy that fosters greater RE growth in general, and specific project commitments by Columbia.

The transition from the Current State (brown power + RECs) toward the Short-Term time horizon, will exhibit these characteristics:

2021: 

• Evaluate options for combining brown power with RECs to cover CY2020 (including committing to multi-year supply and pricing from known generation assets).
• Initiate evaluation of mid-term & long-term opportunities, i.e., commercial PPA opportunities like the JP Morgan arrangement with Brookfield in NY State.
• Review of other short-term options that improve the quality of Columbia’s REC or power supply, including, for example, short-term, potentially non-LL97 RECs based on limited term commitments to in-state renewable projects,
• Immediately approach the market for mid- to long- term opportunity, i.e., to compare against TDI opportunity for 15-20+ year range of time. [*see Market Approach below]
• Study and identify opportunity for on-site renewables opportunities, i.e., solar on roofs. Leverage local law 94 that require this of new buildings.

2022:

• Utilize brown power + National RECs secured in 2021 OR gravitate to commercial PPA or other higher “quality” offerings, if/as available.

2023:

• Evaluate potential mid and long-term commercial PPA opportunities surfaced through market approach initiatives from 2021-2022

2024:

• Evaluate and execute mid and long-term zero emissions contract(s) opportunities. Support progress toward LL97 objectives as that rule becomes effective that year.

*Market Approach: The recommended approach advocates for a coordinated set of defined steps to be undertaken starting as soon as possible to root out short-term opportunities, with room to weave in mid- and longer- term opportunities as they become more visible over time. The Group supports utilizing the following process outline document and other resources that Working Group consultant Energy Strategies has compiled:

1. Identify and survey large RE buyers to gain insight and guidance
2. Develop question set for seller/buyer contacts to obtain comparable responses
3. Develop/vet question set and reach out to identified regulators on key issues
4. Identify and interview regulator contacts
5. Develop “prospectus” for communicating externally Columbia’s volumetric requirements and product specifications to market contacts
6. Identify and interview seller market contact targets
7. Communicate findings and Action Plan

This process will:

• Review and discuss tangible opportunities emerging in the marketplace that can be accessed in an 18 to 24-month period
• Determine applicability of virtual and direct PPAs with sources like offshore wind and solar in New York State, including resources likely to comply with LL97
• Investigate projects in the pipeline in early development and renewable developers that may be seeking climate leaders like Columbia to turn projects into reality
• Prepare the University to make an informed decision about TDI when a contract is delivered in mid-2021.

For the period 2024 to 2030, the NY electricity grid is set to undergo a rapid expansion of its non-emitting power generation supply, to a point that by 2030 the grid will be 70% renewable. During this time, Columbia will continue its path toward zero emissions electricity through use of a combination of cleaner grid electricity, combined with commitments to mid and long-term energy supply agreements from renewable and other zero emissions electricity supplies. The first steps toward obtaining market supplies of zero emissions electricity through contract commitments will have begun during the short-term period and will accelerate as regulatory and market enhancements facilitate greater choice of in supply options.

For the years following 2030, as the NY electric grid continues its shift toward 100% clean energy in 2040 as required by the CLCPA, Columbia will align its strategy for long-term supply in a way that leverages those the “greening grid”, but also places Columbia in a position to enact its own procurements, as necessary, to stay on its science-based trajectory, regardless of when the grid crosses the “100% clean” finish line. Columbia will exercise that flexibility by maintaining a sharp focus on the progress made under the CLCPA and staying in touch with the RE marketplace. Leverage the “greening” NYS grid precipitated by the CLCPA, as the NYS power market transitions to net zero emissions by 2040.