(A) The Public Service Authority shall file for commission approval of a program for the competitive procurement of energy, capacity, and environmental attributes from renewable energy facilities to meet needs for new generation resources identified by the Authority in its Integrated Resource Plans or other planning processes. The commission may not grant approval unless the commission finds and determines that the Public Service Authority satisfied all requirements of this section and the proposed program is in the best interests of the customers of the Public Service Authority. The commission may adopt procedures to implement the requirements of this section and shall retain continuing oversight and approval authority over all aspects of an approved program to ensure any approved program complies with this section and is in the best interests of the customers of the Public Service Authority.

(B) The Public Service Authority shall procure renewable energy resources subject to the following requirements:

Terms Used In South Carolina Code 58-31-227

  • best interests: means a balancing of the following:

    (a) preservation of the financial integrity of the Public Service Authority and its ongoing operations;

    (b) the interest of the Public Service Authority's residential, commercial and industrial retail customers, and those wholesale customers served pursuant to contractual arrangements, but excluding joint action agencies and those entities located outside the State, in reliable, adequate, efficient, and safe service, at just and reasonable rates, regardless of customer class;

    (c) maintenance, preservation, and keeping of the Public Service Authority's properties and all additions and betterments thereto and extension thereof and every part and parcel in thereof, in good repair, working order and condition;

    (d) the support of, economic development and job attraction and retention within the Public Service Authority's present service area or areas within the State authorized to be served by an electric cooperative or municipally owned electric utility that is a direct or indirect wholesale customer of the Authority, provided the remaining items of this subsection have been met; and

    (e) subject to the limitations of § 58-31-30(B) and item (A)(3)(a) of this section, exercise of the powers of the Authority set forth in § 58-31-30 in accordance with good business practices and the requirements of applicable licenses, laws, and regulations. See South Carolina Code 58-31-55
  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • Oversight: Committee review of the activities of a Federal agency or program.

(1) Renewable energy resources procured by the Public Service Authority shall be procured via a competitive solicitation process open to all independent market participants that meet minimum eligibility requirements.

(2) The Public Service Authority shall issue public notification of its intention to issue a competitive renewable solicitation at least ninety days prior to the release of each solicitation, including the proposed procurement volume, process, and timeline.

(3) Renewable energy facilities eligible to participate in a competitive procurement are those that have a valid interconnection request on file and that use renewable energy resources identified in § 58-39-120(F) and may include battery storage devices charged exclusively by renewable energy.

(C) The Public Service Authority shall make publicly available at least forty-five days prior to each competitive solicitation:

(1) A pro forma contract to inform market participants of the procurement terms and conditions. The pro forma contract will (i) include standardized and commercially reasonable requirements for contract performance security consistent with market standards; (ii) define limits and compensation for resource dispatch and curtailments that limit uncompensated curtailment to a specified portion of estimated annual output.

(2) A bid evaluation methodology that ensures all bids are treated equitably, including price and nonprice evaluation criteria. Nonprice criteria will at minimum include consideration of diversity in resource size and geographic location.

(3) Interconnection requirements and study methodology, including how bids without existing interconnection studies will be treated for purposes of evaluation.

(D) After bids are submitted and evaluated, winning bids will be selected based upon the published evaluation methodology.

(E) The Public Service Authority shall issue a public report summarizing the results of each competitive solicitation within sixty days of the award notifications. The report will include, at minimum, a summary of the submitted bids and an anonymized list of the project awards, including their size, location, average award price and tenor, and award price range.

  Previous section
Next section  
 Article 1 Contents