State of Ohio Nuclear and Renewable Generation Fund Program

The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority (“Authority”) is the program administrator of the Nuclear and Renewable Generation Fund Programs, as prescribed in Amended House Bill 6 by the 133rd General Assembly.

Operators of facilities approved to participate in the Ohio Nuclear and Renewable Generation Fund Program will report to the Authority the number of megawatt hours (MWh) of generation produced.  Reporting began on April 7, 2020 and will recur at the end of each quarter, for generation produced the preceding quarter, until January 2027.  Pursuant to Section 3706.45 of the Ohio Revise Code and Section 3706-4-01 of the Ohio Administrative Code, the Authority has designated the Generation Attribute Tracking System (“GATS”) operated by PJM Environmental Information Services, Inc. (“PJM-EIS”) for purposes of validating the generation data, identifying and issuing nuclear resource and renewable energy credits, and accounting for the nine dollar per MWh payments.

Approved Facilities:

At the March 23, 2020 board meeting, the Authority approved the recipients of the new Nuclear and Renewable Generation Fund.

Projects approved for the Renewable Generation Fund include:

  • Highland Solar (Highland County) is a 300-megawatt solar-powered electric generation facility operated by Hecate Energy Highland LLC.
  • Hillcrest Solar (Brown County) is a 200-megawatt solar project operated by Innergex Renewable Development USA, LLC.
  • Willowbrook Solar I, LLC (Highland and Brown Counties) is a 150-megawatt solar-powered electric generation facility owned by RWE Solar Development, LLC.

 Projects approved for the Nuclear Generation Fund include: 

  • Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station* (Ottawa County) is a nuclear power plant near Oak Harbor.
  • Perry Nuclear Power Plant* (Lake County) is a nuclear power plant located on Lake Erie.

    *Both facilities are owned by Energy Harbor Nuclear Generation, LLC, previously known as FirstEnergy Nuclear Generation, LLC.

Summary of Program Implementation:

The process utilized by the Authority to implement the program will include the following steps:

  • As each MWh of electricity is produced for approved facilities and transmitted into the transmission grid operated by PJM Interconnection, Inc., a unique certificate will be created in GATS.
     
  • The Authority will direct PJM-EIS to label the facility’s certificates with a “tag” associated with either a nuclear resource or renewable energy credit.
     
  • The Authority will compare the facility’s quarterly generation reporting to generation certificate reporting in GATS for verification.
     
  • The operators of the approved facilities shall either retire the certificate or transfer it to the Authority’s transacting account in order to be eligible for payment for each for the nuclear resource or renewable energy credit.
     
  • Beginning April 21st, 2021 and as pursuant to Section 3706.55 of the Ohio Revised Code, the Authority will direct the Treasurer of State to remit payment of nine dollars per MWh for each certificate eligible for nuclear credit or renewable energy credit that has been issued, validated, and retired or transferred.  Payments will be made every three months thereafter, not later than the twenty-first day of the month, ending in January 2028.