Submitted by Puget Sound Energy.
Puget Sound Energy has started to review proposals for new renewable and capacity resources to help meet the electric resource needs of customers for years to come.
Following PSE’s requests for proposals (RFP) issued in June, the company received roughly 95 proposals from a wide variety of companies offering on and off-shore wind, solar, battery and pumped hydro storage, run-of-river hydro, geothermal, biomass, natural gas-fired generation, demand response programs, non-unit contingent power purchase agreements and purchase agreements for unbundled renewable energy credits. Proposals included projects sited in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho and Nevada.
“It’s exciting to see the range of technologies proposed in this process that will provide both environmental and reliability benefits for our customers,” said David Mills, PSE’s senior vice president-policy and energy supply.
In the all-resources RFP, PSE seeks to replace the energy capacity shortfall of 272 MW from the coal-fired Colstrip Units 1 and 2 in Montana when they shut down by 2022. PSE also requests proposals for renewable energy capable of providing 671,000 renewable energy credits (RECs) in 2023 and larger amounts in subsequent years. PSE received roughly 90 proposals in response to the All Resources RFP.
PSE’s all-resources RFP also seeks proposals for energy storage capacity. The RFP coordinates with the energy-supply and planning needs stated in PSE’s 2017 Integrated Resource Plan.
A second PSE- issued RFP to aid in the creation of a demand-response program, which seeks technology tools and other resources that would enable customers to shift their electricity usage during high-demand periods to help reduce congestion on the electric grid and lower the wholesale cost of electricity, also drew six proposals.
A decision on both RFPs is expected to be made by spring 2019.