California Community Choice Aggregators Seek Clean Energy Supply Proposals

January 7, 2022

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
January 7, 2022

Three California community choice aggregators (CCAs) have partnered to jointly issue a request for proposals (RFP) for new clean energy resources.

The RFP, which was issued by Central Coast Community Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Sonoma Clean Power, solicits proposals from qualified and experienced individuals or firms to develop non-polluting energy sources to meet California’s new Mid-Term Reliability procurement mandate in addition to each respective CCA’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), greenhouse gas emission reductions and reliability requirements.

The CCAs are seeking to procure resources to satisfy the requirements of a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) order that includes a procurement mandate in response to more extreme weather events and to replace power from the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility, which will be decommissioned in 2025.

As a result, the CPUC ordered all load serving entities in the state, including CCAs, to purchase 11,500 megawatts of new, clean resources to come online by 2026.

The CPUC decision requires the three CCAs to procure a combined total of more than 600 MW of additional Net Qualifying Capacity (NQC) to come online before June 1, 2026. NQC refers to the ability of a power plant to meet the reliability needs of the grid, particularly during peak, evening hours.

Eligible resources for the RFP include non-fossil fuel sources such as solar, wind, renewable plus storage hybrids, and demand response; zero-emitting resources available during peak evening hours, such as energy storage; firm generation resources that are not weather dependent, such as geothermal; and long duration energy storage that is able to discharge over at least an eight-hour period.

Proposals are due by 5 p.m. PT on Jan. 31, 2022, and the RFP is available here.

Central Coast Community Energy serves more than 400,000 customers throughout California’s Central Coast, including residential, commercial and agricultural customers in communities located within Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz counties.

Silicon Valley Clean Energy provides clean electricity from renewable and carbon-free sources to more than 270,000 residential and commercial customers in 13 Santa Clara County jurisdictions.

Sonoma Clean Power is the public power provider for Sonoma and Mendocino counties, serving a population of about a half-million.