Best Practices in Optimizing the Renewable Energy RFO/RFP Competitive Procurement Process

Best Price Isn’t Always the Best Deal

July 13-14, 2020 | , ::

0720-renewable-energy-rfo

Utilities and other buyers of bulk renewable energy face an increasingly complex, competitive terrain when procuring new types of resources to meet clean energy and RPS requirements.  The new landscape has sprouted a market with hundreds of new procurement entrants, meaning a single request for proposal (RFP/RFO) may receive hundreds of responses with varying configurations and price offers. These competing, sometimes inexperienced buyers, are seeking resources – such as batteries and virtual power plants – with limited industry operating norms that they have scant experience procuring.  They typically need expert guidance and advanced analytics to understand sub-hourly value and avoid the risk of increasing price basis in high renewables zones.

This course will provide professionals involved in the process of competitive renewable procurement — on both the buy and sell side — best practices and tools to strategically prepare, design, and respond to RFO/RFPs and obtain optimal results. Subject matter experts will share their experiences and strategies to automate, analyze, and decide on the best renewable energy resource procurement outcomes through competitive RFO/RFPs.  Utilities of all kinds (IOUs, munis, coops); load-serving entities such as community choice aggregators (CCAs), universities, government and public-serving agencies and hospitals; as well as corporate and commercial off-takers, will find great value in the best practices delivered in this course.

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Learning Outcomes

• Describe a typical RFO/RFP process
• Construct a template for preparing and designing renewable energy and REC RFP procurements
• Define products for procurement
• Assess administrative elements
• Determine protocols
• Identify terms and conditions
• Discuss project evaluation criteria
• Review project short-listing elements for negotiation
• Examine after-the-project-award actions

Credits

EUCI is accredited by the International Accreditors for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) and offers IACET CEUs for its learning events that comply with the ANSI/IACET Continuing Education and Training Standard. IACET is recognized internationally as a standard development organization and accrediting body that promotes quality of continuing education and training.

EUCI is authorized by IACET to offer 1.0 CEUs for this event.

 

Requirements For Successful Completion Of Program

Participants must login for the entirety of the course to be eligible for continuing education credit.

Instructional Methods

Case studies and PowerPoint presentations will be used in this program.

Monday, July 13, 2020 – Central Time

8:45 – 9:00 am :: Login

9:00 – 9:15 am :: Overview and Introductions

9:15 am – 5:15 pm :: Course Timing

12:30 – 1:15 pm :: Lunch Break

Short breaks will be taken throughout the day

Overview of Typical RFO/RFP Process

• Competitive procurement fundamentals
  • The parties and their transactional roles
    • Buyers/ off-takers
    • Sellers
  • Types of PPAs
• Why RFOs?
  • Advantages to off-takers
  • Advantages to sellers
  • Where is competitive procurement permissible and what are the regulatory limitations that might preclude this resource procurement approach?
  • Is competitive bidding always feasible or desirable?
  • Basic types of solicitation mechanisms and procurement RFO/RFPs
  • What are top-level competitive procurement issues?
  • Illustrative timeline

Preparing and Designing Renewable Energy and REC RFP Procurements

• Determining the self-supply vs procurement mix
• Distinctions in RFO between buying physical power and virtual power
• Bundled vs unbundled
• All-source (mixed resource) solicitation
• Creating a procurement plan
• Identifying renewable energy procurement requirements
• Assembling internal resource procurement team
• Constructing workable RFP process timeline
• Identifying bidders and conducting outreach
• Formulating plan for evaluating bid proposals
• Managing vendor selection and awards
• Encouraging supplier diversity

Define Products

• Resource need overview
• Contract tenor
• Resource tenor
• Alignment with load
• Risk hedging
• Local benefits
• Environmental benefits
• Contract structures

Administrative Elements

• Web presence
• Marketing
• Bidder instructions
• Schedule
• Standard forms to foster automation and minimize errors
• Bidder webinar
• Answering bidder questions
• Issuing addendums
• Receiving bids
• QA/QC
• Eliminate non-conforming bids

Protocols

• Schedule
• Products being procured
• Production estimates, availability guarantees, output guarantees, performance security
• Needed online date
• Evaluation criteria
• Quantitative valuation methodology overview
• Communication policy

Related Items

• PPA offer form / type of submission
• Data templates for project characteristics
• Bid security
• Binding vs non-binding bid
• Treatment of non-conforming bid
• NDA
• Credit conditions
• Terms and conditions

Tuesday, July 14, 2020 – Central Time

8:45 – 9:00 am :: Login

9:00 am – 12:15 pm :: Course Timing

Short breaks will be taken during the morning

Project Evaluation

• Scoring Sheet 
• 3 economic value streams
  • Energy
  • Capacity
  • Ancillary services
• Modeling
  • Components
  • Geographic variation
  • Risk profile similarity
  • Capturing meaningful uncertainty
  • What not to do (average)
  • Simulations
  • NARUC resolution on sub-hourly modeling
  • Evaluating the impact of storage
  • Loss of load probability calculations
• Case studies
• Cost comparisons
• Risk management
• Hedging with a PPA
  • Historical bias
  • Basis risk
  • Danger of averages
  • Performance risk
  • Mark-to-market tracking

Project Short-listing for Negotiation

• Details
• Follow-up
• Notifications

After the Project Award

• Administration
• Monitoring
• Scheduling
• Settlements
• Risk optimization

David Millar, Director – Resource Planning Consulting, Ascend Analytics

David Millar is Director of Resource Planning Consulting at Ascend Analytics. He leads Ascend’s consulting practice, providing utility clients with expertise in risk-based long-term resource planning and valuation. Previously, David worked at Pacific Gas and Electric, where he served as a Principal of Energy Modeling and Analysis. David led data analytics projects to guide company strategy on generation portfolio planning, energy storage valuation, and load and price forecasting. David previously worked in energy consulting with DNV GL and regulatory policy research at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. He holds a master’s degree in Energy Economics and Policy from Duke University, and bachelor’s degrees in Earth Sciences and Political Science from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Dr. Brent Nelson, Manager – Resource Planning Consulting, Ascend Analytics

Dr. Nelson is a Senior Analyst and Manager of Resource Planning Consulting at Ascend Analytics, providing utility clients with expertise in demand management, resource planning, and renewable integration. Prior to joining the company, Dr. Nelson was an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Northern Arizona University, while also holding a collaborative appointment with the directorate of Scientific Computing and Energy Analysis at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. He also worked for the US Department of Energy from 2014-2016, focusing on technology research and development programs for energy efficiency and demand side management. He has extensive experience in energy technology and energy system modeling, with a focus on understanding the impacts of future shifts in technology adoption. Dr. Nelson has also consulted for several companies and universities on their energy and sustainability initiatives. In addition to eleven years of experience as an academic with a research focus in energy analysis, he holds PhD and MS degrees in mechanical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a bachelor‘s degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Carl Stills, VP – Storage Integration, 8minutenergy Renewables

Carl Stills is Vice President of Storage Integration at 8minutenergy Renewables.  He has more than 40 years of utility industry experience managing energy for California’s sixth largest utility, the Imperial Irrigation District, as the Energy Manager and the Portfolio Management Officer. During his tenure at the utility, Mr. Stills initiated strategic project management, implemented processes that saved hundreds of millions in costs, and oversaw the implementation of battery storage projects. As a member of the Geothermal Energy Association board, he helped initiate the use of renewable energy as a catalyst for addressing the Salton Sea environmental issues.  In his professional capacity for 8minutenergy, Mr. Stills oversees the development of renewable projects in Imperial Valley and works with 8minutenergy’s storage team to bring energy storage projects to fruition.

We will be using Microsoft Teams to facilitate your participation in the upcoming event. You do not need to have an existing Teams account in order to participate in the broadcast – the course will play in your browser and you will have the option of using a microphone to speak with the room and ask questions, or type any questions in via the chat window and our on-line administrator will relay your question to the instructor.

• You will receive a meeting invitation will include a link to join the meeting.
• Separate meeting invitations will be sent for the morning and afternoon sessions of the course.
  • You will need to join the appropriate meeting at the appropriate time.
• If you are using a microphone, please ensure that it is muted until such time as you need to ask a question.
• The remote meeting connection will be open approximately 30 minutes before the start of the course. We encourage you to connect as early as possible in case you experience any unforeseen problems.

REGISTER NOW FOR THIS EVENT:

Best Practices in Optimizing the Renewable Energy RFO/RFP Competitive Procurement Process

July 13-14, 2020 | Online

Your registration may be transferred to a member of your organization up to 24 hours in advance of the event. Cancellations must be received on or before June 12, 2020 in order to be refunded and will be subject to a US $195.00 processing fee per registrant. No refunds will be made after this date. Cancellations received after this date will create a credit of the tuition (less processing fee) good toward any other EUCI event. This credit will be good for six months from the cancellation date. In the event of non-attendance, all registration fees will be forfeited. In case of conference cancellation, EUCIs liability is limited to refund of the event registration fee only. For more information regarding administrative policies, such as complaints and refunds, please contact our offices at 303-770-8800