Southern California Edison (SCE), an Edison International (NYSE:EIX) utility company, announced that it has signed agreements with wind and solar suppliers for up to 960 megawatts (MW) of renewable power, including 726 MW of additional solar-thermal power.
The recent agreements, subject to approval of the California Public Utilities Commission, include two contracts with Solar Millennium for a potential 726 MW of power from solar-thermal trough generators. When complete, those projects call for two 242 MW facilities with the option to expand one to include an additional 242 MW. The projects would be located in Blythe, California, and Ridgecrest, California., and are expected to come on line in 2013 and 2014.
SCE already has contracted for up to 1,300 MW of solar thermal power from BrightSource Energy.
Other recent renewable power contracts–both scheduled to come on line in the fourth quarter, 2010–include an agreement with Columbia Energy Partners for 40 MW of wind power, expandable to 104 MW, in Central Oregon; and one with BP Wind Energy & Ridgeline Energy, LLC for 90 MW of wind power, expandable to 130 MW in Southeast Idaho.
To date, SCE has executed 12 contracts from the 2008 renewable solicitation representing potential annual deliveries of more than 6.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year. In addition, SCE sai it is in the process of preparing to issue its 2009 renewable solicitation by the end of June.
SCE is one of the nation’s largest electric utilities, serving a population of nearly 14 million via 4.9 million customer accounts in a 50,000-square-mile service area within Central, Coastal and Southern California.
SCE ranked second in 2008 for most solar-integrated utility in the U.S. (American Wind Energy Association).
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