Title
Approval of a Power and Renewable Energy Credit Sales Agreement, County Agreement No. AGR20-926 between Uniper Global Commodities North America, LLC and the Incorporated County of Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Recommended Action
I move that Council approve AGR20-936, a Power and Renewable Energy Credit Sales Agreement, between Uniper Global Commodities North America, LLC and the Incorporated County of Los Alamos.
Utilities Manager's Recommendation
The Utilities Manager recommends that Council approve the agreement as presented.
Board, Commission or Committee Recommendation
The Board of Public Utilities recommends that Council approve the agreement as presented.
Body
The Department of Public Utilities has been working to achieve the BPU’s 2040 Carbon Neutral strategic initiative. Many paths have been explored for renewable energy projects here in New Mexico whereby DPU could participate and enjoy the economies of scale that come with the very large wind and solar projects. Due to the past and continuing efforts of staff, an exciting new opportunity has been developed with Uniper Global Commodities (“Uniper”) to participate in a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for combined wind and solar projects in New Mexico that can provide 15MW of low-cost renewable energy. If the contract is approved and executed, Uniper can move forward with the wind and solar developers. Uniper currently has a signed term sheet for the wind project in eastern New Mexico whereas Uniper has several options for building and interconnecting the solar project. Additional value is added by the firm, Around-The-Clock (ATC) nature of the power, which is very unusual for PPA's of this small scale and cost. This contract will supply 131,400 MWh of energy on an annual basis of which approximately 103,000 MWh is renewable.
The following sections describe the proposed PPA structure, the economic analysis over the term of the PPA that make it a good choice for Los Alamos Co...
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