On June 8, 2012, Portland General Electric announced a final Request for Proposals, in which it will acquire substantial new generation resources. In total, the RFP could result in the addition of nearly 1,000 MW of new capacity, making it one of the largest single capacity additions in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. PGE announced that third-party bids are due August 8, 2012.
PGE requests the following resource types: (1) 300-500 MW of new baseload resources; (2) approximately 200 MW of year-round flexible peaking resources; (3) approximately 200 megawatts of bi-seasonal (winter and
summer) peaking supply; and, (4) approximately 150 megawatts of winter-only peaking supply. PGE plans to bring these resources on line between 2013 and 2017.
The RFP comes after an extended legal battle before the Oregon Public Utilities Commission, in which independent power producers and Oregon consumer advocates argued that certain terms of PGE's draft RFP artificially favored PGE's self-build resources and created an uneven playing field for resources constructed by non-utility generators. On June 7, 2012, the OPUC issued an order that required PGE to amend certain parts of its RFP, but otherwise allows the RFP to move forward.
The RFP and related documents are available at: https://portlandgeneralrfp.accionpower.com/_capacity2011/accionhome.asp. The RFP represents a breath of fresh air for the region's independent power producers, which have suffered from slack demand caused by the Great Recession of 2008, low prices, and uncertainty over federal tax and renewables policy.
