After a year of debate, semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries has agreed to comply with Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard if regulators grant its request for self-managed utility status.

The company filed a request last March to oversee its own electricity purchases through the ISO-NE market to power its manufacturing operations in Essex, Vt. In its petition (21-1107-PET), GlobalFoundries claimed that it should be exempt from RES compliance because it would not be reselling electricity. (See Negotiations Stall in GlobalFoundries’ Bid for Vt. Utility Status.)

On Feb. 17, the Public Utility Commission issued an order finding that it does not have the statutory authority to grant that exemption.

“GlobalFoundries’ exit from [Green Mountain Power’s] service territory would either make GlobalFoundries a public service company … or an entity that is not currently authorized under Vermont law,” the order said. “There is no statutorily authorized third option for what GlobalFoundries seeks: to operate with some of the functions of a public service company but without the statutory obligations of a public service company.”

The PUC gave the company three weeks to decide how it would proceed with the application.

GlobalFoundries filed a proposed certificate of public good (CPG) Friday that indicates it will, as a self-managed utility, comply with the RES and any forthcoming changes to it. A bill (S.264) currently before the state legislature proposes to increase the state’s RES from 75% by 2032 to 100% by 2030.

“GlobalFoundries will continue to work with the state to meet the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by the [2020] Global Warming Solutions Act,” Shapleigh Smith, an attorney with Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, said in a letter Friday to the commission. “This includes, among other things, GlobalFoundries’ commitment to an entirely carbon-neutral electricity supply for its Essex facility.”

If approved, the proposed CPG would obligate GlobalFoundries to:

• make payments to offset the loss of gross revenue taxes it would have paid as a utility customer;
• continue to participate in Vermont’s energy efficiency program; and
• pay into the state’s Home Weatherization Assistance Fund.

The CPG would also exempt the company from “requirements applicable to traditional public utilities that are intended to protect ratepayers and other members of the public but which are not necessary in the context of a self-managed utility.” Those requirements include, for example, rate setting and least-cost integrated planning.

The Conservation Law Foundation, a party to the case, filed a memorandum Thursday seeking clarification of the scope of the PUC’s order regarding an RES exemption. GlobalFoundries believes that the order establishes that the commission has the authority to grant the company’s request to become a self-managed utility, CLF said in the memo. CLF, however, disagreed with that assessment.

The company’s “ongoing effort to establish a ‘self-managed utility’ appears to flout the commission’s order,” CLF said.

In its order, the commission said that there is no concept in Vermont statute for a self-managed utility. As such, CLF said, the commission made it clear that by discontinuing service with GMP, GlobalFoundries would either be a regulated public service company or an entity not authorized by Vermont law.

In a separate memo filed Thursday, AllEarth Renewables (AER) agreed with CLF’s reading of the order, adding that the commission failed to take the order to its “clear conclusion.”

By finding that the PUC can authorize a public service company but not create a utility entity as described by GlobalFoundries, the commission “has effectively and correctly decided the entire case,” AER said. Given that finding, AER said, the PUC should dismiss the case.

GlobalFoundries filed a proposed docket schedule that calls for technical hearings in June and a final order from the PUC on the petition by Sept. 1.