Voluntary Retirements

The Retirement Subaccount tracks Certificates that are retired. Only Certificates that qualify as Renewable may be retired by the action of the Account Holder. The Retirement Subaccount may be used to retire Certificates after the sale to an end-use customer or for other voluntary reasons as specified below.

The Account Holder must indicate the purpose for which the Certificate is being retired. Indicating the reason for placing a Certificate in the Retirement Subaccount is a mandatory field located in the Certificate transfer screen.

An Account Holder wishing to retire a Certificate or block of Certificates will select the Certificates in the Active or Banked Sub-Account and indicate that such Certificates should be placed in the Retirement Sub-Account.

What types of RECs can be Retired for Voluntary (non-EDP) purposes?

• Only Certificates that qualify as Renewable may be retired by an approved NYGATS Account Holder.
• Voluntary Retirements involve Unbundled Certificates because Bundled Certificates (those associated with the sale of energy) are retired in an LSE’s EDP Subaccount 

 

To Retire RECs into the Retirement Sub-Account: 

1. Locate the Active or Banked Sub-Account from the Account Status Module located on the Account, select the Hyperlinked quantity to access the Certificates available for transfer.

    

2. Select a batch of certificates from an Active or Banked Sub-Account

3. Review the total quantity at the top of the report and select [Batch Transfer]

   

4. Designate the Retirement radio button and select the Retirement Sub-Account from the dropdown

   

5. Indicate the Retirement Type (the reason for placing a Certificate in the Retirement Sub-Account) and populate additional information, as required.  
   1. Note - the available reasons for Retirement Types are described in greater detail below
6. Once all Retirement information has been populated, select the “Submit” button at the bottom of the screen to initiate Retirement.
7. Confirm the transfer request to finalize the Retirement
   1. Note - Once confirmed, Voluntary Retirements are FINAL and can NOT be reversed.

Background on Voluntary Retirement Types

The Account Holder must indicate the purpose for which the Certificate is being retired by designating a Retirement Type. Indicating the reason for placing a Certificate in the Retirement Sub-Account is a mandatory field located in the Certificate transfer screen. Each reason has a set of retirement details to designate additional information about retirement.

The available reasons for Retirement Types are:

• The ‘Green -e’ Retirement Reason:
  • used only for Green-e Certified sales. Questions about the Green-e program can be directed to the Center for resource solutions. CRS can be contacted via their website at  resource-solutions.org 
• The ‘Beneficial Ownership’ Retirement Reason:
  • used for retirements relating to the benefit of an individual owner for a general environmental reason (i.e. company purchasing RECs to green their operation)
  • A Beneficial Owner field is provided to allow the account holder to provide specific information about the owner of the certificate Note: Compliance or Green-e Voluntary programs should not use the Beneficial Ownership retirement type. 
• The ‘Other’ Retirement Reason:
  • Used for any Voluntary Retirements the Account Holder feels does not meet the criteria of the other Retirement Options.
  • An Additional Details field is provided to allow the account holder to report specific information about the retirement.  

Retirement Type	Retirement Details	Purpose
Used by the Account Holder for a Green-e Energy Certified Voluntary Market Sale: In order to retire Certificates to substantiate sales made in a given calendar year as “Green-e Energy certified”, the party retiring Certificates must have a contract in place with Center for Resource Solutions to make Green-e Energy certified sales in that year of sale.	Reason – Dropdown of Green-e Reasons Unbundled Certificate Compliance Period - Dropdown with all Years (≥2015) Additional Details – Open Text Field to add details on the Retirement	Certificate Retirements for Green-e Voluntary Market program
Beneficial Ownership	Beneficial Owner – Open Text Field to add details on the Retirement	Certificate Retirement for a third party beneficiary or environmental cause
Other	Additional Details – Open Text Field to add details on the Retirement	Optional Retirement Type used for retirements that do not fit into other retirement options

Additional Notes on Voluntary Retirements

• The Retirement Sub-Account is used for voluntary retirement activity not associated with Environmental Disclosure Labels.
• Certificates in the Retirement Sub-Account are excluded from the Residual Mix during NYGATS Settlement, and will not appear on an Environmental Disclosure Label.
• When a Certificate is transferred into a Retirement Sub-Account, the Account Holder must specify the purpose for the Certificate retirement.
• Voluntary Retirements are permanent and can not be reversed.

Note - Bundled Certificates (those associated with the sale of energy) are retired in an LSE’s EDP Sub-Account. A detailed instruction on compliance retirements can be found here.