Portland General Electric (PGE) has issued a request for proposals (RFP) seeking an independent evaluator (IE) to help the company conduct multiple bidding processes this year for new electric generation supplies.
Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) competitive bidding guidelines specify standards to assure that bidding is conducted fairly and properly and that bids received are evaluated consistently. These guidelines include the use of an IE to serve as an impartial third party in the bidding process.
Qualified IEs must submit their proposals to PGE by Feb. 8. The IE will ultimately be selected by the OPUC and report to the commission with his or her findings. Required qualifications, proposal requirements, scoring criteria, and submittal procedures are available here.
The OPUC acknowledged PGE's most recent integrated resource plan in November 2010, finding that the plan described an appropriate strategy to meet PGE's expected electric power needs with the best balance of cost and risk to customers.
To begin implementing that plan, PGE will conduct up to three competitive bidding processes this year to acquire the following:
– Approximately 200 MW of year-round flexible and peaking resources, to help supply customers with electricity during peak demand periods and to help integrate increasing system levels of variable energy resources such as wind and solar power:
– Approximately 120 average MW of new, renewable resources to help meet Oregon's renewable energy standard, which requires the utility to use renewable resources to supply 25% of the power delivered to customers by 2025: and
– Approximately 300 MW to 500 MW of baseload, high-efficiency combined-cycle natural-gas generating capacity.
SOURCE: Portland General Electric Co.
