The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued its quarterly renewable energy progress report showing that in 1Q10, the state’s investor-owned utilities (IOUs) submitted 37 renewable contracts for approval, more than the average number of contracts the CPUC approves in an entire year.
According to the Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) Quarterly Report for the 2nd Quarter 2010, the IOUs are contracting with renewable projects at an unprecedented rate. The IOUs are requesting approval of more than 50 contracts before the end of the year, which is twice as much as the utilities have requested in prior years. More than a dozen of these projects are requesting American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
In 2009, the state’s IOUs collectively served 15.4% of their electricity with renewable energy, up from 13% in 2008. This increase is due to a number of factors, including newly installed renewable capacity; small hydroelectric facilities generating more power; more contracts with existing facilities; and customers using less electricity in 2009 than in 2008, so the utilities’ renewable procurement accounted for a greater percentage of retail sales.
Based on the contracts signed to date, the utilities are expected to be at about 18% in 2010 and 21% in 2011.
Other report highlights include:
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company (NYSE: PCG) delivered 14.4% of its 2009 energy output with renewable energy; Southern California Edison (NYSE: EIX) 17.4%; and San Diego Gas and Electric Company (NYSE: SRE) 10.5%. These three IOUs provide approximately 68% of the state’s electricity.
- Currently, 36 projects have entered into contracts through the Assembly Bill 1969 feed-in tariff program.
The RPS program was established in 2002 under Senate Bill 1078 (Sher) and modified in 2006 under Senate Bill 107 (Simitian). It requires IOUs, energy service providers, and community choice aggregators operating in California to obtain 20% of their retail sales from renewable energy sources by 2010. On November 17, 2008, Governor Schwarzenegger signed Executive Order S-14-08, which established a 33% by 2020 RPS goal.
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California headed for a high-stakes battle over global warming Tuesday, as an oil industry-backed measure to suspend the state’s aggressive climate-change law qualified for the November ballot.
Read Los Angeles Times coverage at the link below.
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