Ormat’s Ormesa Geothermal Power Plant Complex, Imperial Valley, California (source: Ormat)
A ruling by the California Public Utilities Commission proposes at least 1,000 MW of geothermal capacity for procurement? by 2025.
The California Public Utilities Commission has released a ruling on “mid-term reliability analysis and proposed procurement requirements” for the State of California. This follows the blackouts in the California electricity grid in August 2020.
The analysis of the ruling focuses on the years 2024-2026 for California. The potential for reliability challenges is driven by several factors, including the planned retirement of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant, planned retirement of older natural gas plants including those using once through cooling, suggested modifications to the planning reserve margin (PRM), changes in resource availability throughout the west, updated effective capacity accounting, and an updated demand forecast.
In the “Integrated Resources Planning” Proceeding, a procurement track highlights procurement needs that may arise in parallel to the long-term planning activities that are ongoing.
As part of the ruling, it is proposed that at least 1,000 MW of geothermal resources and 1,000 MW of long-duration storage be required to be part of the procurement required no later than 2025. These though also leaves approximately 5,500 MW of additional capacity to be solicited.
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