Pacific Gas & Electric aims to rid itself of a $911 million deal with Spanish wind developer Iberdrola. The developer agreed to build the 246 MW Manzana facility, which would be owned and operated by the utility. PG&E Jan. 20 sought to withdraw its application seeking California Public Utilities Commission approval for the facility. A tentative regulatory ruling rejects rolling the wind project’s costs into rates, concluding the contract was “not cost competitive” and posed “unacceptable risk to ratepayers.” Sources said the arrangement was a “sweetheart deal”—and one elusive to most independent energy producers. Iberdrola terminated the deal, according to PG&E’s Jan. 20 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing adds that it is “uncertain whether or when the CPUC will grant the utility’s request to withdraw the application.” The withdrawal request was on the CPUC’s Jan. 27 consent calendar, but pulled off of it. PG&E planned to own and operate the wind project built by Iderdrola at a cost of about $3.7 million/MW. That is considerably higher than the $2.3 million/MW average cost of wind projects, estimated by E3. The proposed CPUC ruling by administrative law judge Mariam Ebke also casts doubt on whether the project output is needed for PG&E to meet its 20 percent renewable mandate and whether it would be built on time, because of likely delays in building new transmission. She further criticized the project deal for allowing cost overruns. It would “subject the ratepayers to unacceptable risks due to potential cost increases resulting from project under-performance, less than forecasted project life, and any delays which might occur concerning transmission upgrades and commercial online date. As a proposed utility-owned generation project, ratepayers would pay a lump sum cost rather than a performance based cost for the Manzana Wind Project,” Ebke stated.