The California Energy Commission has extended the deadline for its $26.5 million microgrid solicitation (PON-14-301) from November 3 to November 17.
California hopes to use microgrids to reduce carbon emissions and increase use of renewable energy and electric vehicles. The solicitation also seeks proposals for grid-linked electric vehicle projects.
Specifically, the commission is allotting $20.5 million to low-carbon microgrids at critical facilities (police, fueling stations, supermarkets, etc.) or those that include renewable energy. The request for proposals also makes available $6 million for projects that demonstrate smart grid and bi-directional vehicle charging.
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The commission will judge applications in a two-stage process. First, they will be screened to see if they meet threshold requirements, such as financial capability. Second, they will be scored under a system that awards points based on a variety of criteria, among them technical achievement, impact on ratepayers, developer qualifications, budget, and labor value.
The projects must be located within the service territory of a California investor-owned utility.
The commission hopes to achieve several goals through the grant program. For example, it seeks projects that can provide resource, technical and economic insight and identify barriers to microgrid development. The commission also hopes to better understand microgrid configurations that offer ratepayers highest value, identify and serve critical loads and create models that can be replicated.
Preference also will go to microgrids in areas with power supply issues caused by lack of transmission or power plant retirements (such as the closing of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station).
In addition to changing the bid deadline, the CEC has changed the date for announcing winners to January 30 and clarified that March 31, 2018 is the last allowable agreement end date.
Further changes and clarifications to the microgrid solicitation are here. And the full solicitation is available here.
The solicitation contact is: Gordon Kashiwagi, commission agreement officer, CEC, 1516 Ninth Street, MS-18 Sacramento, California 95814; (916) 654-5131; [email protected].
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