Utilities? Renewables Plans Fuzzy

Southern California Edison outlined relatively detailed plans to meet the expected 2010 goal of 20 percent renewables at the California Public Utilities Commission. Pacific Gas & Electric?s plans appear far more generic with less of a promise. San Diego Gas & Electric delayed its filing until April 15. According to the March 7 filings, PG&E stated initially that it is ?committed? to reaching a goal of 20 percent renewables in its portfolio by 2010, but later hedged, stating that it will make its ?best efforts.? The utility asked the commission for the ability to extend procurement beyond 2010 to alleviate what it fears will be a seller?s market. While more detailed than PG&E?s, Edison?s plan is still riddled with caveats and blacked-out charts and pages. Despite the lack of particulars, Edison assumes it will meet the 20 percent renewables goal by 2008. However, it notes that the plan is an estimate and that ?actual results will vary.? Edison presumes its required renewables portfolio will include 42.6 percent wind, 14.8 percent solar, 30.9 percent geothermal, 9.7 percent biomass, and 2 percent small hydro. Yet there is an enormous?500 MW?solar-thermal plant that could be in the utility?s future, which is not counted into the mix. The basic details of the proposal were redacted from the filing. However, the project appears to be one planned for Victorville. The utility noted that it is in negotiations with the solar developer, and that the project would involve a technology unproven on a commercial scale. If the project does proceed, Edison estimates it will come on line in phases beginning in 2010. While Edison expects a certain resource mix, the public hasn?t a clue about the details. In the heavily redacted document, for instance, Edison did not publicly divulge the utility?s procurement trends to 2014 with and without solar components. PG&E would not even allow the public a peek at the expected amounts, or even percentages, of what kind of renewable power could meet its requirement. PG&E, however, expressed a preference for both solar and wind north of Path 15. Wind figures largely in Edison?s renewables future. But it?s one thing to procure wind power and another to get it into the utility?s service territory. Edison?s filing outlines its Antelope transmission plan to build lines to the Tehachapi wind area. Be that as it may, it still has not addressed the current standoff between wind developers and the utility over who will pay the up-front costs for the lines. The utility was supposed to file a plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in January that could circumvent the current impasse by requiring ratepayer investment. Neither the utility nor developers are willing to pay for the needed upgrades ahead of time. At press time, Circuit was notified that the plan had been filed; Circuit will follow up on it next week PG&E is not in such transmission straits. It estimates that new lines needed to meet the 2010 goal would cost between $170 million and $230 million. Edison?s commission filing asserts that it?s taken longer than estimated to work though the process of signing up renewables. The utility, however, has historically dragged its feet when confronted with allowing third-party power providers, such as renewables developers, into its service territory. For instance, Edison was largely responsible for ditching the biennial resource plan update (BRPU), a proceeding at the CPUC that would have allowed QF generators guaranteed contractual access to the utility. PG&E just might get around the contracting question by owning its own renewables, according to the filing. While the filing was devoid of specifics, the utility said that its ownership would benefit customers by furnishing a price hedge and would increase operational control, mitigate contract complexity, and reduce impacts of the price premium for debt equivalence. 500 MW Not Much Solar While neither Southern California Edison nor the developer confirmed the 500 MW of solar power Edison mentions in its California Public Utilities Commission renewables filing, it appears that the project is one voted on by the Victorville City Council March 11. According to sources, the plant would have only 50 MW of solar-thermal-generated steam to power a turbine, with the rest supplied by a gas-fired combined-cycle plant. The plant would be near Constellation?s High Desert power plant. Victorville has the option of building and operating the plant or contracting the plant out to Southern California Edison or another private company, according to the Daily Press .

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Utilities? Renewables Plans Fuzzy

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