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November 2009 - The Michigan Renewable Energy Certification System (MIRECS) was launched on October 30, 2009. The tracking system will issue, track, and enable retirement and trading of various types of renewable energy certificates (RECs) for compliance with Michigan's Renewable Energy Standard. The system is managed by APX Inc. and will be integrated with the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) and the North American Renewables Registry.
News Release - APX Launches Michigan Renewable Energy Certification System
Contact: Reiner Musier, 408-517-2177
June 2009 - APX Inc., an infrastructure provider for environmental and energy markets, announced the launch of the North American Renewables Registry, a web-based platform to create, track, manage, and retire renewable energy certificates (RECs) across North America. The platform is designed for REC suppliers, buyers, and investors in both voluntary and compliance renewable energy markets. The platform also enables state governments to manage RECs established under renewable portfolio standards. The Registry serves facilities and regions, such as the Southeast, that are not already served by existing REC market systems, such as NEPOOL-GIS, PJM-GATS, Texas RECs, M-RETS, and WREGIS.
Press Release - APX Brings Complete Coverage to North American Renewable Energy Markets
APX Contact: Reiner Musier, 408-517-2100
August 2008 - The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) Association has announced that the APX's VCS Registry is open for account holder registration at its Web site. The VCS Registry, which was developed and is operated by APX, provides international carbon market participants a web-based system to create, verify, track, manage, trade, and retire Voluntary Carbon Units (VCUs). VCU is the VCS term to denote carbon offsets or verified emission reductions (VERs). The purpose of the Registry is to "ensure transparency, quality, reliability, and security for VCUs." Entities expected to hold accounts in the Registry include project developers, verifiers, financial institutions, brokers, aggregators, and corporations.
Press Release - APX Powers the Voluntary Carbon Standard Registry
More information - APX’s VCS Registry Web site
May 2008 - 3Degrees, a provider of green power and greenhouse gas (GHG) verified emission reductions (VERs), conducted the first-ever transfer on The Gold Standard Foundation's Voluntary Emission Reduction (VER) Registry earlier this month.
Under the agreement, 3Degrees will retire 1000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emission reductions from Meridian Energy's approximately 90-MW wind energy project in Manawatu, New Zealand on behalf of its customer, News Corporation. The New York-based diversified entertainment company is simultaneously purchasing the Gold Standard verified offsets from 3Degrees as part of its company-wide commitment to becoming carbon neutral by 2010. To date, News Corp.'s total carbon footprint has been approximately 600,000 to 650,000 tons per year. In late 2007, the company purchased 60,000 offsets derived through a wind energy project in Maharashtra, India to help meet that goal.
The Gold Standard Foundation serves as a certification body and provides a registry for offsets they certify. The Gold Standard VER Registry, which was developed and is maintained by APX, Inc., prevents double-counting of Gold Standard VER credits and provides numerous public reports and a full audit trail of all transactions to ensure their integrity. The Gold Standard is distinguished from other carbon standards by its requirement that a project implement additional features that contribute to local sustainability. In the case of the New Zealand wind project, these included incorporating the wind farm into tourism and educational opportunities to the public. The visitor car parking area located underneath one of the turbines attracts an average of 400 cars per week. In addition, the wind farm provides an additional income stream for local farmers while using only a small portion of their land for the turbines.
News Release - First-Ever Transfer on Gold Standard Voluntary Carbon Reduction Registry Conducted by 3Degrees
3Degrees Contact: Krista Canellakis, 415-370-6490
The Gold Standard Foundation Contact: Caitlin Sparks, 510-908-1210
APX Contact: Reiner Musier, 617-699-0929
News Corporation Contact: Jack Horner, 212-852-7952
April 2008 - APX, Inc., the company that provides the infrastructure for the five existing web-based regional renewable energy certificate (REC) tracking systems, has announced the launch of a new sixth system, known as the North American Renewables Registry. The new registry completes coverage of all North American renewable energy generation projects, tracking and registering RECs in those states and provinces of North America not already covered by the five existing systems. It will be open for registration in late May 2008.
Tracking systems provide a basis for creating, managing, transacting, and retiring RECs to enable companies to substantiate environmental claims and compliance with state renewable portfolio standards (RPS). They are designed to prevent the possibility of double counting by providing a uniform accounting structure for the renewable energy generation output and can reduce the cost of manual and paper processes to track RECs and documents. The five existing regional REC tracking systems are: NEPOOL-GIS, PJM-GATS, Texas RECs, M-RETS, and WREGIS.
News Release - APX Launches North American Renewables Registry
APX Contact: Reiner Musier, (617) 699-0929
August 2007 - APX, Inc. announced the launch of the Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS). M-RETS was established to track renewable energy generation in participating states and provinces, and assist in verifying compliance with state/provincial renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and objectives, as well as voluntary market purchases. Current M-RETS participants include the states of Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, and the province of Manitoba. Additional states and provinces in the region are expected to join M-RETS in the future.
News Release - Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) Commences Operations
April 2005 - PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of 12 states and the District of Columbia, announced the launch of the Generation Attributes Tracking System or GATS. The GATS tracks generation attributes and the ownership of the attributes as they are traded or used to meet government standards, such as renewables portfolio standards or fuel-source disclosure reporting. The GATS design was developed through collaboration with state utility regulators, state environmental protection offices, state energy offices, consumer advocates, electric market participants, environmental advocates and other stakeholders. The GATS system is owned and administered by PJM Environmental Information Services.
News Release - PJM Launches Environmental Tracking System for Electricity Generation (PDF 124 KB)
News Article - PJM Starts Tracking Environmental Data on Power Plants
May 2000 - Marking the one-year anniversary of its green tickets program, the Automated Power Exchange (APX) released information on ticket prices and trading volumes in its California Green Power Exchange. The price of the green tickets reflects the premium marketers are willing to pay for green power. For the calendar year 1999, the average monthly trading price of green tickets ranged from $2.64 to $4.95 per MWh.
The market for 2000 tickets opened in January, and the average monthly trading price of green tickets ranged from $3.90 to $4.38 per MWh for the first quarter.
APX Contact: Chris Gallegos (408) 517-2154
April 2000 - ComEd and the Environmental Resources Trust (ERT), a non-profit, environmental organization, have teamed up to offer the first wholesale renewable power product in Illinois. ComEd is selling the product, called EcoPower, through the APX Midwest Market. Electricity suppliers purchasing "green tickets" through the APX Market can use the EcoPower label in their retail marketing.
At present, Ecopower consists entirely of power generated from landfill gas facilities. However, ComEd plans to add other renewable resources, such as small hydro, wind and solar, to the Ecopower portfolio in the future. Profits from the sale of the EcoPower product will be used to finance the development of new renewable resources in Illinois through a fund to be administered by ERT.
News Release - ComEd Launches EcoPowersm
News Release - Automated Power Exchange Opens APX Illinois Market and Expands Midwest Electricity Trading Opportunities - No longer online at APX
ComEd Contact: Mark Jantze, (312) 394-5665
ERT Contact: Eric VanGestel (734) 622-9705
October 1999 - In May, the Automated Power Exchange (APX) launched its "green ticket" program, which allows power suppliers to purchase the "green attributes" of power separately from the electricity commodity. Since introducing the green tickets, APX claims that it has facilitated the trade of more than 175,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable power.
The price of the green tickets represents the wholesale premium that competitive electricity suppliers are willing to pay for green power. Since the program was launched, the monthly average premium has steadily increased from $3.72/MWh to $4.96/MWh.
On October 1st, APX began accepting green ticket trades for the year 2000 market, meaning that power suppliers can now purchase green tickets to meet next year's estimated demand for green power. The forward market allows both suppliers and buyers to lock-in the green premium anywhere from 3 to 15 months in advance.
Although the green ticket trading system is currently limited to the California market, APX has announced plans to open green power exchanges in New York and Illinois.
News Release - Automated Power Exchange Announces Prices for APX Green Tickets in First Five Months of Trading
APX Contact: Lynn Fisher (408) 517-2134
April 1999 - The Automated Power Exchange (APX) announced that it will initiate a "green ticket trading" system that will provide greater flexibility for participants in the APX Green Power Market.
Under the new trading mechanism, qualifying renewable generators selling their power into the commodity market will receive a green ticket for every megawatt-hour of power they generate. The green tickets will allow the particular attributes of the power, such as resource and technology type or whether the electricity comes from a new or pre-existing facility, to be separated from the electricity commodity. In this way, generators will be able to fully capture the true market value of their particular type of renewable power generation.
APX believes that the green ticket system will help intermittent renewable generators in particular because the renewable energy component will have the same value regardless of when the power is actually generated. Also, the system will enhance the ability to track renewable power sales across state boundaries.
News Release - APX Pioneers Trading of Green Tickets
January 1999 - The Automated Power Exchange (APX) is now posting the average monthly price for green power in the APX Green Power Market as well as the average price premium paid for green power above the price of system power in the California Power Exchange. APX will update the APX Green Power Prices on the 15th of every month.
The APX Green Power Market is a week-ahead forward market that matches renewable energy producers with retail providers who want to provide "green" or renewable power to their customers. This market includes only those resources that meet the California Energy Commission's requirements of a "Registered Renewable Supplier" and are eligible for funding from the Renewable Resources Trust Fund. Energy provided from wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, and small hydro (less than 30 MW) power plants may be sold into the APX Green Power Market. The APX Green Power Market is also a member of the Green-e program, a renewable branding program that assures customers their energy purchases from the APX Green Power Market meet high environmental standards.
October 1998 - The Automated Power Exchange (APX) reports that wholesale power sellers participating in the APX Green Power Market in California received a daily average market premium ranging from 0.3¢/kWh to 0.7¢/kWh from July 1998 to September 1998, showing that "the market places a value on environmentally friendly sources." APX has also found that prices in the Green Power Market are less volatile than system power prices in the California Power Exchange (PX). Because the APX Green Power Market includes only those renewable resources that meet certain state requirements, purchasers of APX green power are eligible for a 1.5¢/kWh state-administered customer credit.
APX also announced that the company will open a new electric commodity exchange for the New York power market, including a green power market exchange.
News Release - APX: Green Power Worth More Than Brown - No longer online at apx.com
News Release - APX Commodity Exchange Promises to Revolutionize Northeast Energy Markets - No longer online at apx.com
June 1998 - The Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) announced that the Automated Power Exchange (APX) Green Power Market has been certified under the Green-e Renewable Electricity Program. The APX, which has agreed to abide by the program's code of conduct and undergo annual audits of its green power market exchange, is now able to use the Green-e logo in promotional materials.
The APX Green Power Market, which operates in California, helps match renewable energy producers, through Energy Service Providers (ESPs), with customers who want to purchase green power and also provides power scheduling and payment settlement services.
News Release - APX Green Power Market Green-e Certified
May 1998 - Janis C. Pepper. (1998). Opportunities for Wind in the APX Green Power Market, Presented at WINDPOWER '98, Bakersfield, CA. April 27-May 1, 1998. (PDF 123 KB) Download Acrobat Reader
November 1997 - Automated Power Exchange (APX) is developing a fully automated electricity exchange through which sellers and buyers can make power transactions in the California electricity market beginning January 1, 1998. As a component of this system, APX is developing a green power exchange that will connect sellers and buyers of green power without the need for specific, bilateral contracts.
APX Contact: Janis Pepper (408) 517-2105
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