2023 Clean Energy and Reliability Request for Offers

Clean Power Alliance of Southern California (CPA), the fourth largest energy provider in California, is soliciting competitive proposals to meet its portfolio needs and achieve compliance with various California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Procurement Orders and Resource Adequacy requirements.

Relative to prior RFOs, CPA’s Clean Energy and Reliability RFO has expanded product categories and now includes Resource Adequacy (RA) Only and Thermal Energy Resources. Additionally, CPA has implemented a number of changes to RFO eligibility requirements such as expanding term limits and allowing Proposers to make bundled offers and a fast track process for negotiations.

Ascend Analytics (Ascend) is administering this Request for Offers (RFO) process on behalf of CPA.

CPA’s 2023 Clean Energy and Reliability RFO seeks offers from the following product categories:

Renewable Generation Only Contracts: 
- Mid-term Reliability (MTR) Eligible Baseload/Firm Renewable Energy: Zero emissions generation capacity or capacity that is eligible under the requirements of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) program and has an expected annual capacity factor of at least 80%. The resources must not be use-limited or weather-dependent. No storage projects shall qualify under this product category. Projects in this category should have a generation size of 5 MW – 500 MW and a commercial operation date (COD) no later than June 1, 2028. PPA tenor must be between 10 and 20 years. 
- Regular RPS Resources: RPS-eligible generation (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal), 5 MW – 500 MW in size. Projects in this category must have a commercial operation date no later than June 1, 2028. CPA has a strong preference for projects with an earlier COD. PPA tenor must be between 10 and 20 years.  
Renewable Generation Plus Storage Contracts: RPS-eligible generation (5 MW – 500 MW) paired with storage projects (5 MW – 500 MW). The storage duration must be at least 4 hours and the capacity cannot exceed 100% of the generation nameplate capacity. Projects in this category must have a commercial operation date no later than June 1, 2028. PPA tenor must be between 10 and 20 years.  
Standalone Storage Contracts: Stand-alone storage projects with a storage capacity of 5 MW – 500 MW. The storage duration must be for at least 4 hours. Projects in this category must have a commercial operation date no later than June 1, 2028. PPA tenor must be between 10 and 20 years.  
RA Only Contracts: RA-only projects from storage, thermals, or other qualifying resources with a capacity between 5 MW – 500 MW. Projects in this category must have a commercial operation date no later than June 1, 2028. PPA tenor must be between 5 and 15 years. 
Dispatchable Thermal Energy with RA Contracts: 
- Existing Dispatchable Gas projects (with RA): These may include gas fired generation resources such as combined cycle (CC), combustion turbines (CT), reciprocating internal combustion engines (RICE), combined heat and power (CHP), or steam turbine (ST) projects. The project size must be at least 10 MW with a commercial operation date no later than January 1, 2027. The PPA tolling term must be between 2 and 10 years. 
- Existing Dispatchable Gas projects (with RA) paired with storage: These may include gas fired generation resources such as CC, CT, RICE, CHP, or ST projects that are paired with short duration storage (minimum 1 hour) in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project size must be at least 10 MW with a commercial operation date no later than January 1, 2027. The PPA tolling term must be between 2 and 10 years. 
- Existing Dispatchable Gas projects (with RA) running on blended fuels: These may include gas fired generation resources such as CC, CT, RICE, CHP, or ST projects that burn a green hydrogen or renewable biogas blend in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The project size must be at least 10 MW with a commercial operation date no later than January 1, 2027. The PPA tolling term must be between 2 and 10 years.

To submit a proposal to this RFO and access RFO documents, you must register on the RFO Website.

Full submission instructions are included in the RFO documents.

2023 RFO SCHEDULE

June 9, 2023

RFO opens

June 20, 2023

Proposer Webinar to discuss RFO process at 11:00am Pacific Time

June 28, 2023

Deadline to submit questions at 11:59pm PT. Submit questions here, directly on the RFO website.

July 10, 2023

Q&A document posted to the CPA RFO website

July 19, 2023

Deadline to submit RFO Proposals at 5:00pm Pacific Time

Mid/Late- September 2023

Proposers notified of shortlist status

September 2023 – January 2024*

Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), Resource Adequacy Purchase Agreement (RAPA) and Energy Storage Agreement (ESA) negotiations and awards 

*Fast Track Process — CPA may, at its sole discretion, enter into negotiations prior to notifying Proposers of their shortlist status. Such exceptions will only be considered if requested by the Proposer in the Offer Form and further justified in their narrative (“Fast Track Negotiations”). CPA expects such exceptions to be limited to Proposers with exigent circumstances, including but not limited to, a COD of Q3 2025 or earlier that requires immediate consideration. Proposers entering into Fast Track Negotiations with CPA must otherwise comply with all RFO Protocol requirements and processes.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Mandatory data templates will be supplied to Proposers for submission of project information. Projects will be evaluated on a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors that include economic value, development risk, workforce development, environmental stewardship, benefits to Disadvantaged Communities, and project location. Dispatchable Thermal Energy with RA Contracts will also be evaluated on their transition to cleaner operations and GHG emissions.

Upon launch, the full RFO is available for download on the RFO Website, which includes the following documents:

RFO MATERIALS

RFO Protocol

Submission Instructions

Offer Form Template

CPA RPS Plus Storage PPA

CPA RPS Only PPA

CPA Baseload PPA

CPA Energy Storage Agreement

CPA RA Only Agreement

CPA Tolling Agreement

CPA NDA Agreement

CPA Exclusivity Agreement

CPA Campaign Contributions Disclosure Form

Proposers Webinar

A Proposers webinar will be held on June 20, 2023 at 11:00 AM Pacific Time. The webinar will discuss the RFO process. To participate in the webinar, a Proposer must first register on the RFO Website.