Nov 25 2010
Southern California Edison, power utility company that provides electric service to the residents of central, coastal and southern California, is in the process of improving its renewable energy portfolio. The company has recently contracted 21 accords to augment its portfolio with 259 MW electric power, which can meet the power requirements of over 168,000 average homes easily.
The company has enrolled the contracts under its voluntary renewable power purchase program titled, ‘Renewables Standard Contracts Request’, meant for smaller sized projects.
SCE Power Grid
The company has held this program for a number of years and it enabled the company to sign 20 contracts that produce power utilizing solar power and one 19.5 MW accord for wind power. The company has signed a sizeable number of contracts with Silverado Power, a solar power producing company located in San Francisco. Silverado produces power from its ground mounted installations, located in Victorville and Lancaster. The independent power producers who have signed the accord with Southern California Edison have taken steps to get power generation permissions and environmental clearances from the state and federal governments. The company has signed only with those projects that require minimum level of transmission system upgrades.
From 2002 onwards the company has entered into 105 such accords that can produce around 31.2 billion kWh of clean energy every year. The company being a top buyer of renewable energy has purchased nearly 79% of all the solar energy generated in the U.S., 51% of its geothermal power and 5% of wind energy during the year 2009. It delivered over 13.6 billion kWh of clean energy thus meeting nearly 17% of its clients power needs through renewable energy sources in 2009. The company is anticipated to deliver around 19 to 20% of its total energy supply through renewable energy sources by the end of 2010.