At the May 22, 2025 Open Meeting, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (the Washington Commission) approved Avista’s 2025 Request for Proposals (RFP) with conditions in Docket No. UE-250155. The order approving the RFP was issued on May 23, 2025.
Several parties submitted comments on Avista’s RFP, including the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), Renewable Northwest, the Washington Commission Staff, Form Energy, and Public Counsel.
The Washington Commission adopted several conditions on approval of the RFP. First, the Washington Commission adopted NIPPC’s recommendation to revise the price/non-price score ratio to 70/30. Second, the Washington Commission adopted Staff and NIPPC’s recommendation to remove security requirements from the price/non-price scoring and instead make those minimum bid requirements. Finally, the Washington Commission directed Avista to specify in its scoring matrix the scoring deductions for various transmission and interconnection options including Network Resource Interconnection Service, Energy Resource Interconnection Service, and conditional firm transmission.
NIPPC made several recommendations that Avista agreed to before the Open Meeting including making the scoring information public, allowing Energy Resource Interconnection Service, clarifying Tolling Agreements were allowed, and pushing out the bid due date to provide bidders more time to develop bids. The following recommendations by NIPPC were not adopted: requiring Avista to make utility-owned assets like transmission available to all bidders; making several changes to the form contracts such as the attorney opinion letter, specific performance, waiver of jury trial, and arbitration; and increasing the term and remove the liability cap in the non-disclosure agreement.
Sanger Greene, PC represented NIPPC regarding the Avista 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.
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