Georgia Power Reports Status of Solar Energy Procurement for 2014

Georgia Power told the Georgia Public Service Commission on Jan. 31 that it has lately procured some solar energy and that some of that 2013 allotment for solar capacity will “rollover” into 2014.

The brief Jan. 31 update was under a November 2012 order from the commission under the utility’s Advanced Solar Initiative. Georgia Power wrote that it “is providing this notice regarding the 2013 Solar capacity Georgia Power procured and the remaining capacity that will ‘rollover’ to the 2014 procurement. As of January 31, 2014, Georgia Power has procured 50 of the targeted 60 MW of capacity for the Utility-Scale program, 6.6 MW of the allotted 11 MW for the Small-Scale Distributed Generation Program, and 26.4 MW of the 34 targeted MW for the Medium-Scale Distributed Generation Program.” The utility said that the remaining capacity that will “rollover” for procurement in 2014 is 10 MW for the Utility Scale program and 12 MW for the distributed generation programs. In a separate Jan. 31 letter to the commission, Georgia Power said it has 34 MW of solar resources procured through the 2013 Advanced Solar Initiative (ASI) Small-Scale and Medium-Scale Programs ready to serve Georgia Power’s customers. The 2013 ASI Program has been a successful collaboration for both Georgia Power’s customers and the program participants, growing cost-effective solar generation in Georgia, the Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) subsidiary said. The company said it has developed the 2014 ASI Distributed Generation (DG) program and a related proposed timeline. Furthermore, through the administration of the 2013 ASI DG program, the company and its stakeholders identified improvements that will lead to a more robust program, which is designed to fulfill the Georgia commission’s objectives for DG solar procurement. As a result, the company is proposing clarifications and enhancements to improve the Small-Scale and Medium-Scale programs. The company proposes the following timeline for the 2014 ASI Program activities:

• Participant Conference –March 19, 2014;
• 10 Day Application Period Begins –March 26, 2014;
• Application Period Ends –April 4, 2014;
• Application Review Period – April 4 through May 1, 2014;
• Lottery Selection Process–  No later than May 2, 2014; and
• Contract Cure Period and Execution Timeframe – May 3 through May 31, 2014.

Among the proposed changes are:

• In order to ensure an applicant pool of qualified projects and to offset program administration costs, a non-refundable fee of $5.00/kW will be collected from all program participants.
• While Georgia Power expects every project to reach commercial operation within six months of contract execution, the company understands that in some limited circumstances an extension may be appropriate. So the company has developed a contract extension request process that it will use whenever it determines an extension is appropriate, which will grant the participant an additional 90 days for the facility to meet commercial operation, provided the participant can provide proof of the completion of certain reasonable milestones (e.g. equipment procured, evidence of financing, etc.).
• A participant may only submit one application per site address. Once a project is selected for participation in the lottery process, the participant is prohibited from substituting an unselected project with the selected project. The company will disqualify multiple applications submitted per site address and will not submit those applications into the lottery process.
• The solar facility must be located in Georgia Power’s service territory. The facility must directly interconnect to the Georgia Power system and be metered using a standard meter. An application from a Participant proposing a facility located outside of Georgia Power’s service territory may be considered subject to the approval of Georgia Power, on a case-by-case basis and depending upon the nature of the existing customer facility’s interconnection.
• The company will not give any preference for a customer-located facility for the 2014 offering of 45 MW. However, for the remaining 12 MW that is rolling over from the 2013 offering, Georgia Power will give preference to customer-located facilities first. If any MWs remain after customer-located facilities have enrolled, such MWs will be added to the overall 2014 offering.
• http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/02/georgia-power-reports-status-of-solar-energy-procurement-for-2014