Avista seeks proposals for energy resources to aid carbon neutral, clean electricity pushes

In a new request for proposal (RFP) last week, Avista encouraged ideas for power generation and demand generation alike from bidders interested in helping it meet upcoming carbon neutral and clean energy goals and, more immediately, to meet anticipated capacity and energy shortfalls.

“Avista is looking to obtain energy that meets our system capacity needs and brings us closer to our goal of serving customers with 100% clean electricity by 2045 and 100% carbon neutral resources by 2027,” Jason Thackston, Avista’s senior vice president of energy resources, said. “We are more than halfway there with our mix of renewable hydropower, biomass, wind, and solar. This is one more step to ensure affordable, reliable, and clean energy for years to come.”

In addition to its clean energy goals, Avista currently predicts capacity and energy shortages between 2026 and 2030. Above and beyond renewable energy desires, the company needs 196 MW of winter capacity and 190 MW of summer capacity by 2030 to guarantee reliability for its system. Avista may also bid repowering resources or self-builds into the RFP to meet these needs.

Bids can include various fuel sources such as wind, solar, biomass, hydroelectric, natural gas, renewable natural gas, and hydrogen, along with energy management technologies including pumped storage, batteries, and demand response. Hybrid proposals that include combinations of clean energy, capacity, and/or storage are also welcome, although proposals for Renewable Energy Certificates alone will be rejected.

Any bidder is welcome, so long as they currently own, plan to develop or hold rights to resources that could fill Avista’s energy and capacity needs. However, they must show they can meet the minimum eligibility requirements under the RFP. All responses are due by March 25, 2022.