Since the Green Power Partnership (GPP) was established, EPA has continually reviewed and updated the Partnership's program requirements. These proposed updates are intended to:

• Enhance program credibility by reflecting changes in the green power market;
• Support best practices and leadership in green power use;
• Strengthen program integrity and stakeholder relationships by making changes that are easy to communicate, understand, and implement;
• Increase program cost-effectiveness by simplifying program administration; and,
• Enhance value to Partners that meet the program's minimum usage requirements.

EPA has already sought comment on two rounds of changes to our program requirements.

In September 2017, we updated the program requirements to cover the following topics:

• Discontinuation of the Green Power Leadership Club (GPLC) designation
• Adjustment of the “New” renewables requirement’s allowance for long-term supply contracts and project commitments to be eligible beyond the minimum “New” renewables requirement
• Clarification of the eligible generation dates (currently referred to as “Vintage”) requirement and retain the current 21-month eligibility period
• Establishment of a new Arizona Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff (REST) reporting requirement to address the double counting and regulatory surplus issue for Arizona-based renewable energy projects
• Clarification of the eligible scope of green power use requirement to specify that all reported green power must originate from U.S.-based projects and all reported green power must be applied to U.S.-based facilities/load
• Update of the leased space energy use estimation calculation based on the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) updated average commercial building electricity use factor
• Adoption of a new hydropower eligibility definition as well as updated repowering requirements for existing low-impact hydropower resources

In October 2017, EPA sought feedback on a second set of proposed program requirement changes, which address the following topics:

• Increasing the minimum percent green power use benchmark requirements
• Establishing a minimum electricity use requirement of 1,000,000 kWh as a condition of partnership

The current Green Power Partnership Program Requirements are available here.

The full text of the proposed program updates is available here.

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