The Feb. 1 legislative deadline for the California Public Utilities Commission to make prices of renewables contracts with utilities public came and went without publication. Sen. Alex Padilla’s (D-Van Nuys) SB 836 requires the commission to report renewables costs “no later than Feb. 1, 2012,” to the Legislature. The mandated reports are to be filed annually beginning this year. Because the costs of meeting the state’s 33 percent renewables portfolio standard are passed through to ratepayers, the law requires the commission “to release those costs, in aggregate” to the Legislature. The information due Feb. 1 was retroactive to 2003 contracts. The commission is not only supposed to reveal the pricing in contracts from utility third-party procurement, but also details of utility-owned renewable projects--in a non-specific manner. While Padilla’s office was on notice that the commission had not fulfilled its requirement, the senator did not directly comment. Third party generators were nonplussed, according to Gary Ackerman, Western Power Trading Forum executive director. The revelation that a solar thermal contract with Abengoa was twice the cost of most renewables was made public last fall. The 250 MW facility is set to cost ratepayers $50 million/year, according to commissioners who broke rank with the established tradition of keeping prices secret Nov. 10, 2011. Despite staff concern over the $1.25 billion cost of the plant, it was approved on a 4-1 vote.