2. Background
The current renewable procurement process starts with the submittal by the investor-owned utilities (IOUs)2 of their Annual Renewable Resource Procurement Plans to the Commission for approval. Once the plans are approved, the IOUs initiate a solicitation or "request for offers" (RFO) process for renewable resources. The IOUs issue their RFOs shortly after the Commission approves their procurement plans and allow three months for RFO responses. The IOUs then evaluate the bids, identify a short-list of parties to negotiate with, and begin to negotiate power purchase agreements (PPA) with those short-listed projects. Successful negotiations result in an IOU submitting a PPA to the Commission for approval, usually through the Advice Letter process. Once the Advice Letter and PPA are submitted to the Commission, the capacity, technology and location of the project become public information.3 The data for all of the short-listed projects in a solicitation do not become publicly available until the solicitation is closed, i.e., all negotiations have been concluded. Because many Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) solicitations currently remain open, the short-list data on projects without final PPAs remains designated as confidential. We issue this decision to clarify that the aggregate release of this short-list information for the years 2003 through 2009, without identifying the bid prices, counter party names, solicitation year, or sponsoring utility, is consistent with the provisions of Decision (D.) 06-06-066. This clarification also applies to bilateral contract information submitted to the Commission in the IOUs' RPS Project Development Status Reports or as finalized contracts during the same period covered by the 2003 to 2009 solicitations.
Because the Commission initiates this clarification on its own motion, upon request from the Commission Energy Division staff (Staff), a "draft" of a proposed decision was sent out for comment pursuant to an Assigned Commissioner's Ruling issued October 14, 2009. PG&E filed opening comments on October 26, 2009. SCE, SDG&E, and the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA) filed reply comments on October 30, 2009. We respond to those comments below.
2 The three largest IOUs, and the ones impacted here, are Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E).
3 The bilateral contract process is similar, but without the seller participating in the utility's RFO process.
