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Carbon Pollution-Free Electricity

DLA Energy is looking outward — partnering with and enabling the military services and whole-of-government partners to achieve their climate change goals. Carbon pollution-free electricity provides an opportunity for DLA Energy to support the administration’s clean energy initiatives.

Current Opportunities

Industry partners looking to get started supporting carbon pollution-free electricity should reference open requests for information (RFIs) or requests for proposals (RFPs) on the federal government's solicitation platform, SAM.gov. The following are open:

For questions, email  DLAEnergyResilience@dla.mil.

About CFE

On Dec. 8, 2021, President Biden signed Executive Order (EO) 14057, “Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability:

  • Policy: The federal government shall use its scale and procurement power to achieve 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity on a net annual basis by 2030, including 50 percent 24/7 carbon pollution-free electricity.
     
  • The EO directs the federal government to lead by example in transitioning to 100 percent CFE and use its purchasing power to accelerate a full transition of the electricity sector to CFE by 2035.
     
  • It also emphasizes the need for a coordinated, whole-of-government approach requiring significant cross-agency collaboration.

In response to EO 14057, the Department is piloting new CFE procurement approaches in both competitive retail markets and markets without retail competition. For these CFE pilot procurements, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William LaPlante, directed DLA Energy to serve as the procurement agent for the aggregated Department of Defense requirement.

DLA Energy is poised to assist in meeting the Administration’s climate change goals through its years of experience in acquiring electricity and renewable energy and because of its active participation with industry developing market strategies. 

Clean Energy Resources

View the following for details and examples of clean energy products.

The Installation Energy page notes other ways DLA supports installation energy.

Definitions

 Carbon pollution-free electricity

Carbon pollution-free electricity or CFE means electrical energy produced from resources that generate no carbon emissions including marine energy, solar, wind, hydrokinetic (including tidal, wave, current, and thermal), geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, renewably sourced hydrogen, and electrical energy generation from fossil resources to the extent there is active capture and storage of carbon dioxide emissions meeting EPA requirements.

 Energy attribute certificate

An energy attribute certificate, or EAC, is an instrument that conveys information (attributes) about a unit of energy, including the resource used to create it, and the emissions associated with its production and use. A renewable energy certificate, or REC, is a type of EAC.

 Renewable energy certificate

A renewable energy certificate, or REC, means the technology and environmental (non- energy) attributes that represent proof that 1 megawatt-hour (MWh) of electricity was generated from an eligible renewable energy resource, can be sold separately from the underlying generic electricity with which it is associated. (Sec. VII of M-22-06)

 Retail electric choice

A retail electric choice allows for the entrance of competitors to buy and sell electricity by permitting market participants to invest in power plants and transmission lines. Generation owners then sell this wholesale electricity to retail suppliers. DLA Energy competitively procures electricity and ancillary services for the DoD and federal civilian agencies in states that have deregulated electricity markets. DoD components are encouraged to partner with DLA Energy and aggregate regional electricity requirements

 Vertically integrated markets

A vertically integrated market (also known as vertically integrated utility markets) contains utilities that own and operate all electricity. From the generation to the meter, the utility has complete control; it owns the infrastructure and transmission lines then sells it directly to the customers.

Policy References

 Executive Order 14008 (Jan. 27, 2021)

Executive Order 14008: Sec 205: Federal Clean Electricity and Vehicle Procurement Strategy. Requires use, as appropriate and consistent with applicable law, all available procurement authorities to achieve or facilitate: a carbon pollution-free electricity sector no later than 2035; and clean and zero-emission vehicles for Federal, State, local, and Tribal government fleets, including vehicles of the United States Postal Service.

 Executive Order 14057 (Dec. 8, 2021)

Executive Order 14057, Sec 203: Transitioning to 100% CFE: Requires each agency to increase its percentage use of CFE, so that it constitutes 100% of facility electrical energy use on an annual basis and seek to match use on an hourly basis to achieve 50 percent 24/7 carbon pollution-free electricity, by fiscal year 2030. In addition, agencies shall facilitate new carbon pollution-free electricity generation and energy storage capacity by authorizing use of their real property assets, such as rooftops, parking structures, and adjoining land, for the development of new carbon pollution-free electricity generation and energy storage through leases, grants, permits, or other mechanisms, to the extent permitted by law

 Executive Order 14057 Fact Sheet (Dec. 8, 2021)

The Executive Order 14057 Fact Sheet (PDF): U.S. Government will lead by example to leverage scale and procurement power to drive clean, healthy, and resilient operations. The President’s EO directs the federal government to use its scale and procurement power to achieve 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity (CFE) by 2030, at least half of which will be locally supplied clean energy to meet 24/7 demand.

Achieve 100 percent carbon pollution-free electricity use by 2030, including 50 percent on a 24/7 basis. The federal government will work with utilities, developers, technology firms, financiers and others to purchase electricity produced from resources that generate no carbon emissions, including solar and wind, for all its operations by 2030. Half of the federal government’s 100 percent carbon pollution-free annual electricity demand will be procured on a 24/7 basis, meaning that the federal government’s real-time demand for electricity will be met with clean energy every hour, every day, and produced within the same regional grid where the electricity is consumed. With the scope and scale of this electricity demand, the federal government expects it will catalyze the development of at least 10 gigawatts of new American clean electricity production by 2030, spurring the creation of new union jobs and moving the country closer to achieving a carbon pollution-free electricity sector by 2035.

 Instructions for EO 14057 (August 2022)

Implementing Instructions for Executive Order 14057 (PDF): The EO directs the federal government, as the largest consumer of electricity in the nation, to lead by example in transitioning to 100 percent CFE and to use its purchasing power to accelerate a full transition of the electricity sector to CFE by 2035. The E.O. emphasizes the need for a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to achieve these goals. The implementing instructions provide initial direction for agencies to establish critical systems and begin planning around the CFE goal, including expanding agency information on consumption, measurement systems, and supply arrangements.

 OMB Memo M-22-06 (Dec. 8, 2021)

OMB Memo M-22-06 Transition to 100% CFE (PDF) - Government-wide coordination: Transitioning to 100 percent CFE, and achieving 50 percent 24/7 CFE, will require coordination across agencies to streamline energy purchasing, consolidate and aggregate procurements, and leverage the expertise of the Department of Defense (DOD), DOE, and the General Services Administration (GSA) to contract for electricity for Federal agencies. Agencies must coordinate with DOD, DOE, and GSA to develop procurement strategies to achieve CFE goals and targets.

Maps

A map shows the regions of the US electric power grid and their interconnections

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration

Note: The locations of the electric systems are illustrative and are not geographically accurate. The sizes of the circles are roughly indicative of electric system size.

A US map is divided into ten regions according to their electric power markets

Source: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

  • ISO: Independent System Operator
  • SPP: Southwest Power Pool
  • ERCOT: Electric Reliability Council of Texas
  • MISO: Midcontinent Independent System Operator
  • PJM: Mid-Atlantic Region
  • ISO-NE: Independent System Operator New England
  • CAISO: California Independent System Operator
  • NYISO: New York Independent System Operator

Goals

Net Annual CFE Goals

Progress toward the net annual CFE goal will be measured by adding purchased CFE, on-site CFE, purchased energy attribute certificates (EACs), and grid supplied CFE. Agencies must match consumption with all eligible CFE strategies except grid supplied CFE by obtaining and retiring EACs.

  • Purchased CFE is electricity purchased from a qualifying CFE generation source with the associated EACs, i.e., the original associated energy attributes have not been separately sold, transferred, or retired. Subject to agency contracting authority, agencies can purchase CFE and the associated EAC from a utility provider (including through a green tariff), retail service provider, energy supply contractor, or through a power purchase agreement (PPA).
     
  • On-site CFE is electricity generated at a federal facility. To count CFE produced at a federal facility toward the net annual CFE requirement, an agency must obtain and retire the EACs sourced from the on-site CFE generation. If an agency directly produces from an on-site CFE source, but registration of EACs is not available or practicable, an agency may count generation toward the CFE requirement if the agency retains records verifying CFE generator operations (for unmetered systems) or energy production (for metered systems).
     
  • Purchased EACs are EACs that are procured independently from the agency’s purchases of physical power, often referred to as “unbundled” EACs.
     
  • Grid-supplied CFE is CFE delivered as part of default electricity service or the electricity grid mix from a utility or electric service provider (in contrast to purchased CFE, in which the CFE and associated EAC are specified contractually). To ensure standardized calculation of grid-supplied CFE across the Federal Government, DOE-FEMP must provide necessary data on grid-supplied CFE, by Emissions and Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGRID)11 subregion, using a residual mix methodology that subtracts CFE and unbundled EACs that third parties have purchased, retired or claimed. As market data regarding the CFE content of delivered electricity becomes available, CEQ and OMB may refine methods for calculating for grid supplied CFE.

Net annual CFE goals are shown as a combination of purchased, on-site, and grid-supplied CFEs plus purchased EACs

24/7 CFE Goals

E.O. 14057 sets the goal that agencies match facility electrical energy use on an hourly basis to achieve 50 percent 24/7 CFE by 2030.

CEQ and OMB will issue guidance on methodologies for 24/7 CFE accounting and requirements for reporting and measuring progress toward the 50 percent 24/7 CFE goal in FY 2023, or when sufficient accounting and data management systems for tracking and reporting have been developed.

Pending further guidance and to establish a foundation for meeting 24/7 CFE requirements, in FY 2022, agencies must report on their approach to producing or obtaining, including from electricity providers, their hourly facility consumption profiles by grid region. Beginning with the January 2023 Annual Energy Report, where agencies have the data, agencies must report the percentage of their electricity consumption by grid region on an hourly basis.

CFE News

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DLA Energy welcomed 440 employees in person and virtually for the 2023 Acquisition Workforce Symposium at the McNamara Headquarters Complex on Fort Belvoir, Virginia, June 13-15.

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