Dive Brief:
Ensuring a reliable grid and affordable energy remain key priorities for California s utilities as the state charts a path toward its goal of 100% renewable and zero-carbon electricity by 2045, power providers said during a joint agency workshop Wednesday.
The meeting, conducted by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), California Energy Commission and California Independent System Operator (CAISO), kicked off a broader regulatory process to begin planning for the build out of new resources to meet that goal. Making sure that reliability in the near term and the longer term continues to be the focus as we decarbonize is a very critical part and priority of this journey, Daniel Hopper, director of resource and environmental planning and strategy at Southern California Edison, said. [W]e are at an inflection point. The old ways of planning simply don t work, he added.
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New data shows Xcel Energy Colorado’s 2016-2017 all-source competitive solicitation (ASCS) secured even lower costs than power sector leaders previously thought, adding momentum to interest in this emerging approach to procurement.
Xcel’s ASCS returned a $0.017/kWh bid for wind, a $0.023/kWh bid for solar, and a $0.03/kWh bid for solar-plus-storage, according to a February 2021 Xcel presentation to Michigan regulators. These prices, compared to Colorado’s average January 2021 residential electricity price of $0.126/kWh, have other utilities asking how they can use this procurement approach.
ASCSs identify market-based portfolios that meet utility needs on both cost and risk from the full range of options, said 3rdRail Managing Partner Fredrich Kahrl, lead author of a March 2021 Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) ASCS study. The study outlines 11 ASCS proceedings from investor-owned ut