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Local Government Power Supply RFP Status Report

A number of California local governments have issued Requests For Proposals (RFP) for new power supplies. Some of these RFPs have included provisions to aggregate residential and business customers' electricity loads; others have asked bidders to price "green" electricity. Power supply proposals have focused primarily on delivering cheaper electricity exclusively to local government buildings and other facilities.

Most local governments have taken a cautious approach to power purchasing, favoring shorter length contracts and guaranteed savings to avoid the financial risk associated with agreements where the local government and supplier share any savings derived from power shopping.

Like other California consumers, local governments are discovering that there are few great bargains in today's evolving competitive electricity market.

Here is a summary of preliminary results from selected local government RFPs :

County of Sonoma

Additional Information: The County of Sonoma ultimately plans to use electricity generated from its 6 MW methane recovery/power generation facility at a landfill waste disposal site to become a fully "green" county, producing nearly all of its own energy needs from a renewable resource.

San Diego Association of Governments

Additional Information: The 86-member San Diego Association of Governments is offering its members a one-year shared savings plan from Commonwealth Energy that gives local government participants 75 percent of any cost savings obtained from electricity shopping. SANDAG estimates its members will receive average savings of 2.5 percent off incumbent utility rates. Commonwealth will provide funds for an aggregation program administrator at SANDAG, but the funds will come from participant savings.

City of Concord

Additional Information: New West Energy will supply all meters and pay all meter monitoring and maintenance charges. The City will own the meters after two years.

The City of Palmdale

Additional Information: The City of Palmdale will send its total energy bill to Calpine on a quarterly basis. Calpine will then rebate back to the City five percent of the total bill dollar amount.

City of Long Beach

Additional Information: New West Energy is providing all required meters and picking up all installation, monitoring and maintenance costs.

City of South San Francisco

Additional Information: The deal between the municipality and supplier is similar to Palm Springs in that First Point Solutions is working asJ a partner with South San Francisco to aggregate both residential and business constituents [See Community Aggregation: Palm Springs Case Study].

Results and Status of Other RFPs

For the results from the City of San Jose's RFP, see The Case for Energy Efficiency: Pioneers in the City of San Jose Case Study. Results from the Association of Bay Area Governments' RFP are available in the ABAG: A Regional Approach to Local Government Facility Aggregation Case Study. The results from the Department of General Services' RFP can be found in the Public Sector Aggregation: Department of General Services Case Study.

Other local governments that have released RFPs that are still active include the City of Costa Mesa, the City of San Bruno, and the City of San Diego.

The County of Sacramento, the City of Richmond, and the Cove Communities (Indian Wells, Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage) have abandoned their RFP evaluations.

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