GMP’s Energy Supply is 94% Carbon Free and More Than 63% Renewable

Clean, cost-effective, reliable energy

Our energy supply is 94% carbon free and more than 63% renewable. We work hard to provide customers with clean, cost-effective reliable power. Most of our supply is hydro power, both from small local hydro facilities in Vermont and large facilities in Quebec. GMP is committed to being 100% carbon free by 2025 and 100% renewable by 2030.

Note: These 2019 numbers are estimates based on GMP’s energy plan and our power supply purchases throughout the year. These estimates will be finalized once ISO-NE processes all Renewable Energy Credits, which are also called RECs. (If you’re wondering what a REC is – we explain below!) That process takes months, so the finalized 2019 data will not be official and posted on our website until the end of 2020.

What are RECs?

A REC is a Renewable Energy Credit, and each represents the environmental benefits of 1MWh of renewable energy. Power generators can sell the green attributes of the energy they produce as RECs and whoever buys the RECs can then claim the environmental value of that energy as their own – even though they did not generate that clean power. RECs can only be counted once. So, when GMP sells RECs to reduce overall costs for customers, GMP can no longer claim the green attributes of the power we produced – it is considered “market power” rather than “renewable power” for our customers. Scroll down to learn more about how RECs help to lower costs for customers below.

2018 Energy Supply

In 2018, GMP’s power sources were 94% carbon free and 60% renewable. This chart shows our finalized energy supply after the sale of RECs. Scroll down to see the chart showing our energy mix before selling RECs.

Note: Market purchases do not have environmental attributes associated with them, and so they are treated as having the ISO-NE residual mix. That system mix changes over time, but for 2018, it was primarily natural gas (42%) and nuclear (32%).

The chart below shows GMP’s preliminary power supply before we bought and sold RECs.

How do RECs lower the cost of electricity for Vermonters?

The purpose of the regional REC market is to provide incentives to develop renewable generation like solar and wind power. All states in New England require utilities to have renewable energy as a portion of their energy mixes, while the exact amounts vary by state. Utilities can produce their own renewable power or meet those targets by buying RECs (which helps incentivize renewable developers). GMP sells some of the RECs we generate to other utilities when those RECs are more valuable out of state, which directly helps to reduce costs for all GMP customers. GMP currently sells the RECs associated with renewable generators like Kingdom Community Wind because they generate value that 100% goes to customers and offsets power costs for them.