CONSISTENCY WITH 2012 RPS PROCUREMENT PLAN. This section discusses whether PG&E’s evaluation and selection methodology is consistent with its final 2012 renewable energy procurement plan. The finding is that, overall, the methodology as documented in the 2012 RPS solicitation protocol is consistent with the approved plan. • The procurement goal for the 2012 solicitation is consistent with that stated in the plan of adding 1,000 GWh/year through new long-term contracts; • The solicitation accepts Offers both from new projects and from existing, operating facilities, and does not apply an explicit preference to either. (An existing, operating facility that does not propose major modifications will score higher than a proposed new resource using the Project Viability Calculator, but that is a natural attribute of the project as opposed to an intentional selection bias.) As stated in the approved plan, PG&E is not seeking short-term transactions that will fail to contribute to RPS needs beyond 2020. The RFO protocol states a minimum contract term of ten years and used an adjustment to valuation that advantaged proposals with delivery terms of ten to fifteen years. Also, as stated in the plan, PG&E envisaged long-term Offers from existing contracted RPS facilities whose PPAs do not expire in the near term; a portion of the outreach for the solicitation targeted such existing projects. • The plan indicates that the 2012 RFO would seek products that enable PG&E to comply with its Resource Adequacy requirements. The public protocol states PG&E’s preference for projects that are fully deliverable (as opposed to energy-only or partially deliverable). The valuation methodology rewards fully deliverable projects with higher values, as long as the delivery network upgrade cost to achieve full capacity deliverability status does not exceed the estimated value of RA capacity. • The plan expresses a preference for long-term contracts that begin deliveries in 2019-2020, which is when PG&E current anticipates a need to augment its existing RPS portfolio. The valuation methodology has an adjustment which discounts the benefit of projects that commence deliveries earlier than the beginning of 2019. • The plan also states that PG&E will be procuring long-term volumes with initial delivery dates “no later than the latter part of the third compliance period.” This element of the plan is intended to help ensure RPS compliance both within the third compliance period and after 2020. However, there is no specific element of P...
