At the March 10, 2022 Open Meeting, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (the Washington Commission) approved PacifiCorp’s 2022 request for proposals (RFP) with conditions in Docket No. UE-210979. At the April 14, 2022 Special Public Meeting, the Oregon Public Utility Commission (the Oregon Commission) approved PacifiCorp’s 2022 RFP with several conditions in Docket No. UM 2193. In an Order from April 22, 2022, the Utah Public Service Commission (the Utah Commission) also approved PacifiCorp’s 2022 RFP with conditions in Docket No. 21-035-52. PacifiCorp’s RFP was issued to the market in April and bids are expected to be due in January 2023.
Several parties submitted comments on PacifiCorp’s RFP throughout the three states including the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), Renewable Northwest (RNW), Utah Association of Energy Users, Interwest Energy Alliance, NewSun Energy, Swan Lake North Hydro, LLC and Goldendale, Laborers Local 295, Washington & Northern Idaho District Council of Laborers, Utah Office of Consumer Services, Washington Public Counsel, and Staff from each Commission.
Several parties, including NIPPC, RNW, and Oregon Staff, recommended a commercial operation date later than December 31, 2026 for all resources. The Washington Commission adopted a commercial operation date of December 31, 2027 as a condition to its approval of the RFP. The Oregon Commission and Utah Commission also adopted a commercial operation date of December 31, 2027.
In Utah and Oregon, the Commissions adopted alternative bid options. PacifiCorp’s bid fee increased to $15,000 per bid for this RFP. The Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to allow two alternative bids for a project at the same location and with the same technology type for reduced fees of $5,000 each. The Utah Commission directed PacifiCorp to allow a bidder to submit two free alternative contract lengths and pricing structures for a given type of contract with each $15,000 bid fee. The Washington Commission made no changes to alternative bid options.
NIPPC and RNW made several recommendations to the Oregon and Washington Commissions that were not adopted. In response to these recommendations, the Oregon Commission directed PacifiCorp to consider conditional firm transmission and DC-coupled storage resources in its next RFP, and directed the Independent Evaluator (IE) to monitor and report on the issues of the price/non-price score ratio, performance guarantee, and term normalization. The Utah Commission directed PacifiCorp to include augmentation costs for any benchmark storage resources like it was requiring for storage power purchase agreement bids. The Oregon Commission will likely adopt this condition because the Oregon Commission approved PacifiCorp’s RFP subject to any of the Utah IE’s conditions that NIPPC recommended adopting. The Commissions also adopted other conditions including labor reporting requirements, various sensitivity analyses for the final shortlist, emissions reporting, and reports on which resources were not selected because of state compliance issues.
Sanger Law, PC represented NIPPC regarding the PacifiCorp 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.
