II. Background
On June 19, 2003, the Commission issued Decision (D.) 03-06-071, an Order Initiating Implementation of the Senate Bill 1078 Renewable Portfolio Standard Program. The objective of the RPS program is to attain a target of 20 percent renewable energy for the State of California. To reach this goal, the legislation requires an increase in procurement of renewable energy of at least 1 percent per year.
The legislation also requires the Commission to adopt criteria for the rank ordering and selection of least-cost, best-fit renewable generation resources. D.03-06-071 developed the majority of the components of this evaluation, and identified two components for further study. Those two components are establishing capacity values for intermittent technologies and developing bid adders to reflect the cost of transmission needed to connect new renewable generation to the grid.
The task of developing any necessary bid adders was assigned to the Commission's Transmission Investigation (I.) 00-11-001, and an interim opinion on these issues was approved at our June 8, 2004 Commission Meeting.2
On the issue of capacity values for intermittent technologies, we found that the RPS program should utilize either the standard approach employed for Qualifying Facility (QF) resources, or the more refined analysis contained in the report "California Renewables Portfolio Standard Renewable Generation Integration Cost Analysis" (Integration Study) prepared by the California Wind Energy Collaborative under the auspices of the CEC's Public Interest Energy Research Program, should the results become available in time.
Subsequently, on April 22, 2004, we issued the instant rulemaking to allow for the closure of the prior procurement docket and to address the remaining issues related to the implementation of the RPS. At that time, we identified four tasks that must be completed to enable the first round of RPS solicitations to occur. With the adoption of D.04-06-013, approving a methodology for considering transmission costs, D.04-06-014, adopting Standard Contract Terms and Conditions and D.04-06-015, adopting the Market Price Referent methodology, three of those four tasks have been accomplished. This decision addresses the fourth task: resolving the remaining issues related to the rank ordering and selection of least-cost, best-fit renewable generation resources.
On May 20, 2004 the assigned ALJ issued a ruling establishing a schedule for the development of criteria for the rank ordering and selection of least-cost and best-fit renewable resources. A CPUC-CEC Collaborative workshop on least-cost, best-fit issues was held on May 24th and 25th, 2004. Following the workshop, parties agreed upon a common outline for addressing the issues in opening and reply briefs. The common briefing outline was distributed to the service list in this proceeding by ALJ ruling on May 27, 2004.
On June 4, 2004, nine parties filed opening briefs: the California Wind Energy Association (CalWEA), the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies (CEERT), the Green Power Institute (GPI), the Independent Energy Producers Association (IEP), the Commission's Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E), Southern California Edison Company (SCE), and The Utility Reform Network (TURN). Reply briefs were filed on June 10, 2004.
2 See D.04-06-013.
