Rocky Mountain Power seeks approval to run Utah community renewable solicitation, asks PSC to waive separate solar/non-solar RFP rule

Presiding officer Michael Hammer conducted a hearing on Rocky Mountain Power’s application (Docket 24-035-55) requesting approval of a 2025 Utah Renewable Communities Request for Proposal (URC RFP) and a motion to deviate from Utah Administrative Code R746-314-402, part 4 so one solicitation procedure may cover both solar and non-solar resources.

Rocky Mountain Power witness Craig Eller, senior vice president of resource strategy and development for PacifiCorp, told the commission the company filed the application on Nov. 19, 2024, under the Community Renewable Energy Act (signed March 29, 2019). Eller said the URC RFP would be administered by the Community Renewable Energy Agency on behalf of participating customers and that combining the separate solar and non-solar solicitation rules into a single procedure would “streamline the solicitation process and avoid undue hardship by running a single solicitation.”

The Division of Public Utilities (DPU) reviewed the application and told the PSC it was not opposed to approving the solicitation and the requested deviation, but raised conditions and concerns about transmission considerations, prevention of cost shifting to nonparticipating customers, pricing, resource ownership and whether new generation is needed. DPU witness Robert Davis said the division expects many of its concerns to be addressed in the forthcoming program application docket (identified in the hearing as Docket 25-035-06).

The Office of Consumer Services (OCS) likewise did not oppose approval of the RFP process but urged the commission not to approve any resources selected through the solicitation until the program design is vetted and approved in the program docket. OCS witness Bela Vastag said the office’s position is that risks from resources procured through the RFP should remain solely with the Community Renewable Energy Program and its participants.

Christopher Thomas, senior energy and climate program manager for Salt Lake City Corporation speaking for the Community Renewable Energy Agency, described the agency’s planned solicitation. The agency would solicit resources commercially ready to achieve operation no later than 2029, prefer projects already advanced in Pacific Core transmission queues, and accept bids from developers with prior delivery experience. A third-party consultant (Energy Strategies) would aggregate, anonymize and screen bids; the consultant would score bids for price and non-price attributes; Rocky Mountain Power would analyze up to six shortlisted bids for projected system benefits and emissions reductions; and the price score would account for 70 of 100 possible points in ranking.

Thomas acknowledged the agency is taking the risk that projects selected through an early solicitation might later be rejected when the commission reviews the full program, but said the agency believes early market testing is necessary to produce resource cost data that will inform initial rates for program participants. The agency also said it intends to run the solicitation at the agency’s expense and that any signed power purchase agreements would not become effective unless and until the commission approves the program.

At the close of testimony counsel and staff discussed the practical relief the company seeks: (1) a waiver of R746-314-402(4) to allow a single RFP to cover both solar and non-solar resources for this solicitation and (2) entry on the record of the proposed solicitation rules to govern this specific RFP without an immediate formal amendment to the Administrative Code. Counsel for the company, the DPU, OCS and the agency stated they had no objection to that approach during the hearing. The transcript does not record a final written order or vote by the commission during this hearing.

Next steps noted on the record: the program design and any approvals of resources selected through the URC RFP will be considered in the separate program docket (identified in the hearing as Docket 25-035-06), where parties will address the conditions the DPU and OCS emphasized including cost shifting, transmission availability and pricing.