UTILITY GREEN TARIFFS WITH REMOVAL SHARES

A green tariff is a regulator-approved retail electricity product through which subscribing customers pay a premium that the utility uses to procure specified renewable electricity and its associated environmental attributes on their behalf. This lever would adapt that established model by adding certified durable removals to the procurement basket, as a fixed quantity per megawatt-hour or per subscription. The removal share is a proposed extension, not a product demonstrated by the existing green-tariff precedents, and would remain separate from the electricity attribute rather than making fossil-generated power renewable or carbon neutral. If adopted, the utility would aggregate demand from households and firms too small to sign individual removal offtakes.

The product must specify whether subscribers buy a fixed quantity each month or an amount linked to energy use, which methods and durability tiers qualify, how units are verified and retired, and who bears replacement risk. Subscription periods must also match procurement commitments, since customer cancellations can leave utilities holding longer-term supply contracts. Regulated utilities should prevent costs shifting to non-participants, and claims must present the removal share as a separate climate contribution rather than proof that the supplied energy is emissions-free or carbon neutral.

This lever can turn many small willingness-to-pay decisions into procurement volumes large enough to support supplier contracts. Utilities bring billing relationships, customer reach, procurement capacity and credit quality, while a standing subscription creates a repeat buyer for removal suppliers. Fixed-price blocks can make participation accessible to households and smaller firms. Portfolios can also increase their durable-removal share over time, building familiarity with CDR without immediately exposing subscribers to the full cost of an exclusively high-durability portfolio.

Opt-in uptake and customer churn can leave procurement volumes small or unstable. Poor-quality units, double retirement, supplier non-delivery or vague marketing can damage the utility’s brand and create consumer-protection exposure. Premiums may exclude lower-income customers, while default enrolment risks undermining voluntariness. Subscribers may also treat the product as a substitute for reducing energy use or purchasing cleaner electricity unless its claims and design preserve a clear mitigation hierarchy.

Evaluation should compare enrolment, cancellations, premiums, tonnes contracted, delivered and retired, supplier non-delivery and customer complaints. Annual public reconciliation can show whether purchases match subscription promises, while consumer research can assess whether customers understand the removal share as separate from the electricity or gas supplied.

Utility regulators or municipal boards, utilities and energy retailers, consumer advocates, certification bodies, registry operators and removal suppliers should shape the design. Early consultation can test affordability, acceptable claims and remedies for non-delivery, while supplier engagement can align subscription terms with credible procurement contracts.

Utilities or energy retailers deliver the product by enrolling customers, collecting premiums, procuring units and retiring them. National regulators can authorise the product and standardise claims where retail tariffs are regulated nationally; in federal systems such as the US, approval instead sits with state utility commissions. Meanwhile, it would be feasible for customer-owned municipal utilities can adopt subscriptions through their own governing boards. The relevant governmental level is therefore the authority controlling or approving billing terms and customer claims, alongside the utility that performs the procurement.