PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

ID #8956

ENERGY DIVISION RESOLUTION E-4286

December 3, 2009

REDACTED

RESOLUTION

Resolution E-4286. Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

PROPOSED OUTCOME: This Resolution approves cost recovery for a power purchase agreement (PPA) resulting from bilateral negotiations between PG&E and Solaren Corporation (Solaren), pursuant to California's renewables portfolio standard (RPS) program. The PPA is approved with conditions.

ESTIMATED COST: Actual costs are confidential at this time.

By Advice Letter 3449-E filed on April 10, 2009.

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SUMMARY

PG&E's proposed power purchase agreement complies with the RPS procurement guidelines and is approved with conditions.

PG&E filed Advice Letter (AL) 3449-E on April 10, 2009, requesting California Public Utilities Commission (Commission) review and approval of a renewable energy PPA with Solaren. Pursuant to the proposed PPA, PG&E will procure generation from a first-of-its-kind space-based solar project (Project). PG&E's request is granted, with conditions, because the PPA is consistent with Decision (D.) 08-02-008, which approved PG&E's 2008 RPS Procurement Plan and because the cost of the PPA is reasonable. The conditions for Commission approval are that PG&E does not rely on the proposed Project for RPS compliance or procurement planning purposes prior to certain development milestones being met. The payments made under the PPA between PG&E and Solaren are fully recoverable in rates over the life of the PPA, subject to Commission review of PG&E's administration of the PPA.

Project specific features of the PPA

Confidential information about the contract should remain confidential

This resolution finds that certain material filed under seal pursuant to Public Utilities (Pub. Util.) Code Section 583, General Order (G.O.) 66-C, and D.06-06-066 should be kept confidential to ensure that market sensitive data does not influence the behavior of bidders in future RPS solicitations.

Pursuant to D.06-06-066 and the decision's Appendix I "IOU Matrix", this Commission adopted a "window of confidentiality" for individual contracts for RPS energy or capacity. Specifically, this Commission determined that RPS contracts should be confidential for three years from the date the contract states that energy deliveries begin, except contracts between IOUs and their own affiliates, which should be public.