June 2022
New agency creates procurement services for Community Choice Aggregators
California Community Power (CC Power) signed contracts with two companies earlier this year to build long duration energy storage for seven community choice aggregators (CCAs). REV Renewables will build the 69-MW (552 MWh) Tumbleweed Project near Rosamond in Kern County. Onward Energy will develop a 50-MW (400-MWh) Goal Line project in Escondido.
CC Power was formed in 2021 by eight CCAs as a joint powers agency, to provide procurement services to the CCAs. The organization modeled itself after the Southern California Public Power Authority and the Northern California Power Agency which have been procuring energy resources for municipal utilities up and down the state for many years.
CC Power requested offers in October 2021 for 200 MW of firm clean resources with proposals due in December 2021. By March 2022, most of the eight CCAs had signed two contracts for long duration energy storage – 69 MW in January with 7 CCAs and 50 MW with 6 CCAs in late February.
The first procurement by CC Power was approved at its board meeting in January 2022 with REV Renewables. The 69-MW Tumbleweed Project will be connected to the grid operated California Independent System Operator, It is expected to come online in 2026.
The participating CCAs for this project are CleanPowerSF, Peninsula Clean Energy, Redwood Coast Energy Authority, San Jose Clean Energy, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Sonoma Clean Power Authority and Valley Clean Energy.
The second agreement was approved by CC Power in February 2022 with Onward Energy which will develop the 50-MW Goal Line project. It is projected to come online in 2025. It will have eight hours of discharge duration and will be located in Escondido, California.
Six CCAs signed on to this agreement except for Peninsula Clean Energy. Its website reports that, as of 2021, its power portfolio is comprised entirely of carbon-free or renewable resources.
The procurements are in compliance with an order from the California Public Utilities Commission to all utilities, CCAs and other load serving entities under CPUC jurisdiction (D21-06-035). They must procure power resources to cover their required loads when responding to extreme weather events, including fire and earthquakes allowing them.
The utilities and CCAs are not allowed, for the most part, to procure fossil fuels since they must meet the state’s greenhouse gas emission reduction goals “in a cost-effective manner.” The additional goal of procuring clean energy resources is to help meet greenhouse gas emissions reductions. SB100 requires emissions to be cut 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and all retail electricity to be carbon-free by 2045.