The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved the renewable energy plans of the state's utilities, paving the way for the utilities to solicit bids for green energy procurement. California's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) program requires investor-owned utilities, electric service providers and community choice aggregators to increase procurement from eligible renewable energy resources to 33% of total procurement by 2020.
CPUC approved the renewable energy procurement plans of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison (SCE). The commission's decision allows SCE to forego holding a 2012 RPS solicitation and instead focus on procurement from small distributed generation renewables. The utilities must file final RPS procurement plans with CPUC to initiate the RPS solicitation process within the next 13 days.
CPUC’s decision includes modifications pertaining to standard variables for the least-cost, best-fit bid evaluation methodology; contract termination rights based on higher-than-expected transmission upgrade costs; and the use of energy-only and full deliverability time-of-delivery factors.
“Adopting these procurement plans and holding 2012 RPS solicitations is important for maintaining a robust renewable energy market in California,” says Commissioner Mark J. Ferron. “I look forward to working with all parties in the near future to make the RPS program more transparent and streamlined by reforming the least-cost, best-fit methodology for all utilities and adopting procurement process reforms.”
