Avista, through a request for proposals (RFP), is seeking power generation and demand management proposals from bidders to meet its clean energy goals and projected resource needs.
The 2021 Electric Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), filed on April 1, 2021, reflected a need for new resources to meet requirements of the Clean Energy Transformation Act (CETA) and future customer peak demand. The IRP is a 20-year forecast of potential generation and energy efficiency resources to meet customer capacity and energy needs for both Idaho and Washington.
“Avista is looking to obtain energy that meets our system capacity needs and brings us closer to our goal of serving customers with 100 percent clean electricity by 2045 and 100 percent carbon neutral resources by 2027,” says Jason Thackston, Avista’s senior vice president of energy resources. “We are more than halfway there with our mix of renewable hydropower, biomass, wind and solar. This is one more step to ensure affordable, reliable and clean energy for years to come.”
The all-source RFP seeks generation and demand management resources to meet capacity and energy shortfalls between 2026 and 2030. In addition to renewable energy needs, Avista seeks approximately 196 MW of winter capacity and 190 MW of summer capacity by 2030 for reliability. As part of this RFP, Avista may bid repowering resources and/or Avista self-builds into the RFP. Avista will utilize an independent evaluator to participate in the design and assist in evaluating proposals.
The RFP is open to parties who currently own, propose to develop, or hold rights to resources meeting Avista’s requirements for energy and capacity. Parties who offer demand management solutions to lower customer demand during peak winter and summer events will be equally considered. Bidders must also demonstrate an ability to meet the minimum requirements for eligibility as listed in the RFP.
Proposals must satisfy the requirements of the RFP; Avista expects generation proposals from both new and existing fuel sources, such as wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, natural gas, renewable natural gas, and hydrogen. It also expects energy management solutions from pumped storage, batteries, and demand response.
Avista will consider hybrid proposals including combinations of clean energy, capacity and/or storage. Avista will not accept proposals for Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) only. RFP responses are due by March 25, 2022. The RFP and bid instructions are available here.
Image: “Solar panel” by OregonDOT is licensed under CC BY 2.0
