Distributed Generation Groups (DGG)

For small (<=1 MW) customer-sited Distributed Generating Units, M-RETS will allow aggregation (“Distributed Generation Groups”) of units not metered together and which do not share the same location, but which are located within the same state or province, and which otherwise share the same essential generation characteristics.

Aggregated units into a DGG must meet the following criteria:

1. The M-RETS State/Province programs allow for aggregation if eligibility is sought
2. The Aggregated Units do not exceed a total nameplate capacity of 1 MW

M-RETS will require documentation to be submitted for each Distributed Generating Unit to verify the unit’s engineering, interconnection and ownership which may include an Interconnection Agreement, Certificate of Completion and Schedule A.

How to Register a DGG

DGG functionality must first be turned on for an Organization. Please contact [email protected] to request use of this feature.  Once the feature has been enabled by the M-RETS Administrator, please follow the below steps to register a DGG. 

1. Navigate to the 'DG Groups' dashboard located on the left hand side

2. From here, select 'Add New DG Group' to access the Distributed Generation Group registration

3. Complete each registration section. The fields required are similar to that of registering a stand-alone generator in M-RETS.

General Tab

Group name: M-RETS does not require any specific naming convention, DG groups can be named at the discretion of the organization registering them. 

DG Group Type: Groups can contain either residential, commercial or a mix of both distributed energy resource types.

Reporting Entity:  The entity that is reporting the generation for a generator, can often be a different organization than the generator owner. Some organization use a QRE to report generation, MISO, or SPP.

Issuance Account: What account would you like the RECs to be issued to. The Accounts can be found on the left hand side. You can treat them like a folder or wallet as they can help you organize where the RECs are going.

Owner Tab

Company Name: The name of the company that owns the DGGs.

Address: Where the company is located.

Engineering tab

Interconnected Utility: Select a utility that the DGGs are connected to, if any.

Fuels tab

The fuels tab is where the user selects the generator fuel as well as any program eligibilities .

Eligibility: These are applied to a generator and any certificates issued will have the applied eligibility attached to them. Eligibilities are used by compliance programs as an additional data point on certificate batches.

Units Tab

The Units tab is where you will enter the required information for each unit that makes up a group. Select 'Add', and then you will be taken to this 'Add Unit' screen. Complete the required information and select 'save'.

Expansion Indicator:  If the unit being registered is an addition to an already registered project, check 'Yes' for this field. If it is a standalone new DGG unit check 'No'

DGG Units can also be bulk-added to a group using the CSV titled "Distributed Generation Groups (DGGs) Units Upload File", found here by scrolling all the way down. Then click on 'Generator Registration' and click on Distributed Generation Groups (DGGs) Units Upload File. It'll then automatically download a .csv for you.

Once the CSV Unit File is completed please email it to the M-RETS Admin and our team will upload the file.

4. M-RETS will require that documents are submitted to verify each unit of a DGG, including but not limited to:

• Interconnection Agreement 
• Engineering Documents 
• Certificate of Completion 
• Ownership documents

M-RETS will require that a Schedule A is completed for units that are not owned by the Organization that is registering the units. The M-RETS System Administrator may request additional documents as needed. 

5. Once all the required fields are entered in, select 'Submit Generator'. The DGG will then be placed in a Pending status and the M-RETS Admins will review the registration.