California Community Choice Aggregators Seek Firm Clean Energy Resources

October 27, 2021

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
October 27, 2021

A recently issued solicitation seeks up to 200 megawatts (MW) of firm clean resources for a group of California community choice aggregators (CCAs) through one or more projects, with deliveries beginning no later than June 1, 2026.

California Community Power, a Joint Powers Agency comprised of ten California CCAs, on Oct. 25, 2021 issued a request for offers (RFO) for firm clean resources that produce renewable energy on demand and include geothermal and biomass sources.

On June 24, 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision requiring load serving entities, including members of California Community Power, to procure long lead-time clean resources to address mid-term reliability. The decision mandates new generation with at least an 80 percent capacity factor that has zero on-site emissions, or otherwise qualifies under the California Renewable Portfolio Standard program eligibility rules.

The RFO follows a set of enhanced conditions that the California Community Power board adopted for its first, joint procurement of up to 500 MW of long-duration storage in October 2020.

The guidelines state that California Community Power will also consider workforce and environmental concerns for projects through enhancing the conditions imposed on project developers for workforce, the environment, and environmental justice.

California Community Power members are: Central Coast Community Energy, CleanPowerSF, East Bay Community Energy, MCE, Peninsula Clean Energy, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, San José Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power and Valley Clean Energy.

The RFO may be found at cacommunitypower.org/solicitations. Proposals are due December 13, 2021.

The long-duration storage procurement is still ongoing. On October 8, the California Community Power board provided notice of its intent to consider a 69 MW/552 megawatt hour energy storage project to be built in Kern County, Calif.

Negotiations are still ongoing, but California Community Power is expected to enter into an Energy Storage Services Agreement for this project in December 2021.

The American Public Power Association has initiated a new category of membership for community choice aggregation programs.