Portland General Electric issues RFP for renewable power

Portland General Electric Co. is seeking power generating resources to help it comply with Oregon’s renewable energy standard. The company recently issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking approximately 100 MW of renewable power. According to PGE, the renewable projects must be at least 10 MW in size, and can represent a variety of technologies, including biomass, biogas, wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power. The company specified that it may acquire a single resource or a mix of resources to achieve this target. The resources acquired through this RFP will be brought into PGE’s portfolio in the 2013-2017 timeframe.

Oregon’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) required large utilities that supply 3 percent or more of the state’s total retail electric sales, such as PGE, to ensure 5 percent of their power was renewably sourced by 2011. The targets step up to 15 percent in 2015, 20 percent in 2020 and 25 percent in 2025. The requirements for small utilities are lower.

According to PGE , it circulated a draft of the RFP to stakeholders and potential bidders and held worships before submitting the draft to the Oregon Public Utility in July. A revised draft was submitted on Sept. 10, and the commission approved the RFP on Sept. 25.

The Accion Group Inc., an independent evaluator hired by the OPUC, is helping conduct the RFPs and is reviewing bids. All bids are to be submitted online through the Accion Group website. The website also includes links to a tutorial, bid examples and worksheets, and a variety of other supporting documents.

PGE is expected to submit a benchmark proposal in the RFP process by Oct. 30. Bids are due Nov. 13. The Accion Group will not release those bids to PGE until scoring of the benchmark proposal is completed and sealed. PGE is expected to make final resource decisions in early 2013.