The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) took several actions to ensure energy reliability for Californians this summer and beyond through approval of power purchase agreements and energy storage programs and contracts.
The CPUC approved changes to Southern California Edison Company’s (SCE) 20-year power purchase agreements with AES Alamitos, LLC and AES Huntington Beach, LLC, which will provide an additional 49.5 megawatts (MW) of capacity and approximately 16.5 MW of energy and ancillary services at no additional cost. AES Alamitos and AES Huntington Beach are efficient combined cycle gas turbine projects that reached commercial operation in February 2020.
These changes approved by the CPUC ensure that SCE has access to all of the capacity from the AES Alamitos and AES Huntington Beach projects to meet reliability needs on behalf of customers in the western Los Angeles basin subarea. Separately, the CPUC approved the 2020 energy storage plans for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), SCE, and San Diego Gas & Electric, per the energy targets mandated in Assembly Bills 2514 and 2868. The three utilities have met, or nearly met, their Assembly Bill 2514 procurement obligation of 1325 MW, which must be online by the end of 2024.
In this same decision, the CPUC also authorized SCE to move forward with two programs pursuant to Assembly Bill 2868: a New Home Energy Storage Pilot funded at US$ 5 million and a Smart Heat Pump Water Heater Program funded at US$ 13.9 million. Lastly, the CPUC approved nine energy storage contracts for a total of 1598.7 MW of new capacity for PG&E to come online from August 2023 through June 2024. The contracts will contribute to meeting. 2 cpuc.ca.gov | 415-703-2782 | 800-848-5580 | PG&E’s portion of the 11,500 MW of clean energy capacity ordered by CPUC in the integrated resource planning (IRP) proceeding. PG&E intends to use a portion of the resources contracted to come on line in 2023 that exceed its 2023 IRP obligations to provide additional summer reliability to meet its 2023 Summer Reliability target procurement.
All of the contracts were selected through a competitive procurement process and overseen by an independent evaluator. The contracts are with Beaumont ESS I, LLC for 100 MW; Sanborn ESS I, LLC for 169 MW; Canyon Country ESS I, LLC for 80 MW; Moss Landing Energy Storage 3, LLC for 350 MW; Poblano Energy Storage, LLC for 100 MW; NextEra Energy Resources Development Corby Energy Storage for 125 MW; NextEra Energy Resources Development Kola Energy Storage for 275 MW; Nighthawk Energy Storage, LLC for 300 MW; and Caballero CA Storage, LLC for 99.7 MW.
Prior CPUC decisions increased overall demand- and supply-side procurement requirements for utilities to serve peak and net peak demand in 2022 through 2024 and directed all load serving entities to procure 11,500 MW of new capacity under the CPUC’s integrated resource planning process over the course of four years.
