California utilities on board with renewable energy program
By Erin Waldner, The Bakersfield Californian -- July 13
In future years, a larger portion of the electricity that powers California will come from wind, solar and other alternative energy sources.
The California Energy Commission, the California Public Utilities Commission
and the California Power Authority have since pushed the 2017 deadline up to
2010. Draft legislation is moving through the state Legislature to formalize the
2010 deadline.
Claudia Chandler, assistant director of the California Energy Commission,
said the Renewables Portfolio Standard "just makes sense," in part
because it will help keep retail electricity prices down.
California utilities say they're moving full steam ahead in meeting the
program's requirements.
On Friday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. issued a notice that it will accept
bids to sell the utility electricity from renewable sources beginning Thursday
and continuing to Aug. 23. Thirteen percent of PG&E's customer load
currently comes from renewable resources that meet RPS criteria.
Local PG&E spokeswoman Cindy Pollard said the utility is on target to
meet the 2017 deadline and that if the deadline is moved up to 2010, that won't
be a problem.
Pollard said PG&E has six contracts that commenced in 2003 and that
provide the utility electricity from renewable resources. These contracts --
four of which are from biomass sources and two of which are from geothermal --
increased the utility's renewables base by 1.4 percent.
Wind, solar, biomass (energy resources derived from organic matter),
geothermal energy (energy derived from the heat of the earth) and small
hydroelectric facilities (which produce electricity from falling water) are
typical renewable energy sources.
At 23,000 gigawatt-hours a year, California utilities are the No. 1 buyer of
renewable energy in the country.
Southern California Edison purchases more than any other state, with the
exception of California.
Early last summer, 23 percent of SCE's total monthly power sales were coming
from renewable resources, according to Gil Alexander, a spokesman for the
utility.
That was a record for SCE.
"We do not anticipate any difficulty in meeting the 2017 or 2010
goal," said SCE spokesman Gil Alexander. "We are aggressively
committed to finding these resources."
Alexander said SCE is in the midst of its third renewables contract bid in
the past two years. He declined to give specifics about the bids but said the
utility has selected some for final negotiation, and expects to present them to
the CPUC for approval in the next four to five weeks.
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