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Increasing Australia's renewable electricity generation

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Renewable Power Percentage

The renewable power percentage (RPP) establishes the rate of liability and is the mechanism that liable parties use to determine how many renewable energy certificates (RECs) need to be surrendered to discharge their liability each year. Individual REC liabilities can be determined by multiplying the total liable or relevant acquisition for a year by the RPP.

• For example, in 2009 the RPP is 3.64%. A liable party purchasing 100,000 MWh of electricity in 2009 must surrender 3,640 RECs to fully discharge their liability for this year.

The RPP is required to be published in the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001 (regulations) prior to 31 March of the year in which it applies. This allows liable parties time to plan their REC acquisition strategies. If the RPP is not published prior to 31 March then the default formula under Section 39 of the Act applies and can be used to determine the default RPP for the given year.

• More about the Regulation amendment process

The RPP is set to achieve the interim targets specified in the legislation which will achieve the renewable energy target for 2020 of 45,000 GWh.

As the RPP is calculated in advance, it is based on estimates of the total amount of liable electricity in upcoming years. In some years the RPP may result in more RECs being surrendered than the specified target and in other years the RPP may be set too low resulting in less RECs being surrendered. The under or over-achievement against the interim target is corrected by adjusting later years' RPPs.

For example:

• The 2007 RPP is 2.70% to achieve a target of 5,600,000 RECs;
• If the RPP resulted in 5,741,131 RECs being surrendered, a later year target would be adjusted downwards by 141,131 MWh prior to calculating its RPP. For example, the 2009 target of 8,100,000 RECs would be adjusted to 8,085,887 to calculate the necessary RPP;
• If the 2007 RPP resulted in 5,597,450 RECs being surrendered, a later year target would be adjusted upwards prior to calculating its RPP. For example, in this case the 2009 target would become 8,102,550 RECs.

The size of each liable party's REC liability for each year will not be adjusted after surrender if the RPP is found to not exactly match the interim target. The ORER will recommend that the Australian Government adjust a later year RPP taking the overall REC liability into account.

Calculated RPPs

To view RPPs that have been calculated you can reference Regulation 23 of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Regulations 2001 .