Alabama Power has issued two requests for proposal (RfPs) to meet the future energy and reliability needs, including proposals for potential renewable energy projects.
Image: Alabama Power issues RfPs for energy projects. Photo: Courtesy of Dan Wenger/FreeImages.com.
As per the RfPs, Alabama Power will consider projects which can supply between 100MW and 1.2GW of electricity. A megawatt, as per the company will be enough to serve about 250 typical Alabama homes.
Under the capacity proposal, the company will consider buying electricity from an existing plant or from a newly constructed plant or electricity purchased via long-term contracts.
The projects need to be dispatchable and available to meet Alabama Power’s future summer and winter capacity needs, the company stated.
Alabama Power forecasting and resource planning director John Kelley said: “We’re always looking for the best ways to meet the needs of our customers while providing the reliable service they expect and deserve.
“With generation technologies evolving and energy prices always changing, we want to see what the market may have to offer.”
The Birmingham-headquartered company stated that it will consider a variety of renewable projects including solar, wind, geothermal, tidal or ocean current, low-impact hydro and biomass, among others.
Projects which involve gas derived from sewage treatment processes, solid municipal waste or landfills, and heat and power projects also will be considered. The proposals can be energy-purchase contracts with 10 or 25 years terms or they can be turnkey projects.
These projects must be at least 5MW, but not larger than 80MW and they must be located in the state of Alabama and should be connected to the company’s electric system. Alabama Power will receive all the environmental attributes from the projects.
Alabama Power is also planning to reach out to large organizations and industrial customers for their interest in participating in the renewable energy projects. A solicitation to customers is expected to take place in late fall.
The last day for receiving bids and bids for firm capacity RfP is 26 October and 9 November, respectively. The selected projects will need to receive approved from the state Public Service Commission.