Pa. PUC Approves Procurement of 50 MW Block at PPL

The Pennsylvania PUC adopted a motion from Chairman James Cawley to approve as filed, with one modification, PPL Electric Utilities Corp.'s petition for approval to procure a long-term 50 MW block of default supply for residential customers, as provided in its default service procurement plan (P-2010-2213354).

As previously reported (12/6), PPL proposed procuring the 50 MW of long-term supply on a unit contingent basis during its April 2011 procurement through 10 tranches, with each tranche providing for a maximum delivery of 5 MW per hour.

Winning suppliers under the long-term product RFP will provide PPL Electric with electric supply at a single specified firm price for each 5 MW tranche, which includes all necessary energy, transmission other than Network Integration Service, transmission losses, congestion management costs, and such other services or products (but excluding capacity, ancillary services, and alternative energy credits that are required to meet the Delivery Obligation under the long-term product supply master agreement).

The only change ordered by the Commission is allowing the Commission up to three business days to approve the bid results once they are presented to the Commission. "This involves a long-term energy market with vastly different characteristics than a shorter term market of one to two year contracts for default service power purchases. Here, we do not anticipate that energy prices will be constantly changing to the same degree. This market moves at a much slower pace; it has very limited price discovery," Cawley said in his motion.

The PUC's Law Bureau will prepare a Tentative Order consistent with Cawley's motion that will become final after 10 days if no adverse comments are filed.