At the January 4, 2024 Public Meeting, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (the Oregon Commission) approved Portland General Electric Company’s (PGE) 2023 Request for Proposals (RFP) with several conditions in Docket No. UM 2274. The order approving the RFP was issued on January 12, 2024. PGE’s RFP is expected to be released to the market on January 26, 2024. Several parties submitted comments on PGE’s RFP and PGE’s affiliated interest application from Docket No. UI 489 seeking to permit Portland Renewable Resource Company (PRR) to participate in PGE’s 2023 RFP, including the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), the Oregon Commission Staff, Renewable Northwest, Oregon Solar + Storage Industries Association, NewSun Energy, Swan Lake North Hydro, LLC and Goldendale, BrightNight, Green Energy Institute, and PGE’s Benchmark Team.
The Oregon Commission adopted several conditions on approval of the RFP and PRR’s participation in the 2023 RFP, including what transmission rights are conforming. Bids using conditional firm, system conditions transmission service would be permitted to participate with bidders proposing curtailment parameters for modeling that are subject to negotiations with PGE and oversight by the Independent Evaluator (IE), and those bids would be scored and ranked with all other bids. The Commission also reduced the transmission requirement to 75 percent of the resource’s interconnection limit to align with the requirements of the Western Resource Adequacy Program.
Other important changes include:
- The Commission declined to adopt PGE’s debt imputation adder for power purchase agreement (PPA) bids.
- Regarding PGE benchmark resources, the Commission required more disclosure of the benchmark resources PGE plans to bid into the RFP and more explanation on what utility-owned assets PGE plans to use in the RFP.
- The Commission adopted Staff’s recommendation to allow third-party bidders to submit a straw bid that uses those utility-owned assets that must be scored by PGE and the IE.
- Regarding form contracts, the Commission declined to make specific recommendations on changes to the form contracts to align them more with market, but the Commission did direct the IE to recommend changed to 5 to 7 contract provisions to more be more aligned with market with an emphasis on termination, delay, and credit requirement provisions.
- The Commission directed PGE to retain the IE through contract negotiations and final resource selection.
The Commission allowed PRR to participate in the RFP, but placed several conditions on its participation, including:
- Any bid that will utilize PRR must be treated as a benchmark bid resource in accordance with Oregon’s competitive bidding rules.
- Several of NIPPC’s recommended revisions to the affiliate form PPA that will be between PGE and PRR.
- RFP team to convert all PRR PPA prices and publish its formula for converting those prices.
- NIPPC’s recommendation to appoint a Special Master to oversee any disputes or defaults of the PPA between PGE and PRR.
Sanger Law, PC represented NIPPC regarding the PGE RFP.
NIPPC represents electricity market participants in the Pacific Northwest, including independent power producers, electricity service suppliers, and transmission companies. NIPPC is committed to facilitating cost-effective electricity sales, offering consumers choices in their energy supply, and advancing fair, competitive power markets.
Disclaimer
These materials are intended to as informational and are not to be considered legal advice or legal opinion, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. Information included about previous case results does not assure a similar future result.
