Dive Brief:

• Rocky Mountain Power has signed power purchasing agreements (PPA) to add 320 MW of solar from FirstWind in Utah and Idaho under the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), which obligates utilities to ink contracts with small-scale renewable energy providers.
• The deal for 320 MW of solar is broken up into 20-year, 80 MW contracts, the most Utah regulators allow under PURPA. The installations will be built in-state, said FirstWind, and, if the deal is approved by the regulators, should come online in late 2016.
• The utility has 800 MW-worth of pending and approved recent PURPA. 

Dive Insight:

If the deal is successful, Rocky Mountain Power's parent company, PacifiCorp, will increase its renewables portfolio by 41%..

Because of renewable contracts such as this one, PacifiCorp said in March, the utility wouldn't need to build a new power plant this decade. Proposed and already enacted EPA regulations for power plants make new fossil-fired generation investments increasingly difficult and uneconomical to do.

Idaho Power, which makes similar agreements under PURPA, said the law is forcing utilities to make power purchases they don't need, rather than investing money in other areas. The utility currently has 777 MW of PURPA contracts, with more to come soon, according to the company.