Dive Brief:
- San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) will accept bids through January 5 on its request for offers (RFOs) for 500 megawatts to 800 megawatts of new capacity. SDG&E specified the bids must offer “local capacity,” 175 megawatts can be “preferred resources or storage,” and 25 megawatts must be energy storage.
- SDG&E presently gets 23% of its generation from renewables and expects to reach California's 33% mandate by the end of 2014, six years early, thanks to delivery of abundant solar and wind resources in the California desert east of the utility’s service territory by the newly opened high voltage direct current Sunrise Powerlink.
- SDG&E is seeking to replace the 440 megawatts of capacity it lost when the 2,200 megawatt San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS), of which it was 20% owner, was closed last year.
Dive Insight:
The "preferred" resources in the RFOs are renewables which, along with storage and demand response, are at the top of California’s loading order and would qualify as part of an expanded state renewables mandate.
Though PPA prices are not disclosed in California, it will be especially telling to see which of the offers SDG&E selects in early 2015 because it will have fulfilled its 2020 mandate and in need of economizing as a portion of the losses associated with the SONGS closure falls on it.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) just rejected the proposed $4.7 billion settlement agreement between utilities and consumer advocates to cover SONGS losses, calling for co-owners Southern California Edison and SDG&E to take more than the proposed $1.4 billion in responsibility.
