August 14, 2006
ROSEMEAD, Calif., Aug 14, 2006—Southern California Edison’s (SCE) effort to attract new power plants to Southern California reached another milestone today as the utility released formal Request For Offers (RFO) documents soliciting long-term power purchase contract offers by independent power producers (IPP). Preliminary documents were released to the IPP industry for comment on July 21, 2006.
The open, competitive solicitation for up to 1,500 megawatts (MW) seeks contracts lasting up to 10 years for new generating facilities that could be online within the next several years.
“Supply forecasts by state agencies show Southern California will need approximately 1,500 megawatts of new generating capacity between now and 2011,” said SCE Senior Vice President of Power Procurement Pedro Pizarro. “Power supplies could become tight as early as next summer if extreme conditions develop, and will continue to tighten in the future.”
The utility’s action follows the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) July 20, 2006, approval of a plan based on a proposal by SCE and other market participants. The plan calls for the benefits and costs of new generation contracts to be allocated to all customers within a utility’s service territory who would benefit. Examples of customers to whom the CPUC allocation plan would assign new generation benefits and costs include SCE’s “bundled” customers, those on SCE’s wires system served by “direct access” providers, and those currently served by either provider who later select an alternate source.
SCE’s RFO solicits two types of contract proposals: Fast-track proposals for new resources that could be online by August 2010, and standard-track proposals for new resources that could be online by August 2013.
Further information is available for download at http://www.sce.com/EnergyProcurement.
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An Edison International (NYSE:EIX) company, Southern California Edison is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.7 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within central, coastal and Southern California.
