4 Colo. Code Regs. § 723-3-3656
Current through Register Vol. 47, No. 9, May 10, 2024
Section 4 CCR 723-3-3656 - Resource Acquisition(a) It is the Commission's policy that utilities should meet the RES in the most cost-effective manner. To this end, the competitive acquisition provisions and exemptions of the Commission's Electric Resource Planning Rules shall apply to the acquisition of eligible energy resources by investor owned QRUs. Notwithstanding the exemptions in the Electric Resource Planning Rules, investor owned QRU shall acquire renewable distributed generation in accordance with a process set forth in a Commission-approved compliance plan or by separate application.(b) When evaluating resource acquisitions to comply with the RES, the Commission shall consider, on a qualitative basis, factors that affect employment and the long-term economic viability of Colorado communities, including best value employment metrics.(c) For new eligible energy resources that the investor owned QRU acquires from third-party suppliers, the investor owned QRU shall request from the suppliers and provide to the Commission the following best value employment metrics: (I) the availability of training programs, including training through apprenticeship programs registered with the United States Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship and Training;(II) the employment of Colorado workers as compared to importation of out-of-state workers;(III) long-term career opportunities; and(IV) industry-standard wages, health care, and pension benefits.(d) In the event that an investor owned QRU proposes in a resource acquisition plan to construct a new eligible energy resource, the investor owned QRU shall provide the Commission with the same best value employment metrics as set forth in paragraph 3656(c).(e) The investor owned QRU may apply to the Commission, at any time, for review and approval of renewable energy credit contracts of any size, and renewable energy supply contracts with renewable distributed generation. The Commission will review and rule on these contracts within 90 days of their filing. The Commission may set the contract for expedited hearing, if appropriate, under the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure. If the QRU enters into a renewable energy supply contract or a renewable energy credit contract in a form substantially similar to the form of contract approved by the Commission as part of the investor owned QRU's compliance plan, that contract shall be deemed approved by the Commission under this rule.(f) Renewable energy supply contracts entered into after July 2, 2006: (I) shall be for the acquisition of both renewable energy and the associated RECs;(II) may reflect a fixed price, or a price that varies by year;(III) shall have a minimum term of 20 years (or shorter at the sole discretion of the seller); and(IV) shall require the seller to relinquish all REC ownership associated with contracted renewable energy to the buyer.(g) Renewable energy credit contracts entered into after July 2, 2006: (I) shall be for the acquisition of RECs only;(II) may reflect a fixed price, or a price that varies by time period; and(III) shall have a minimum term of 20 years if the REC is from an on-site solar system, except that such contracts for on-site solar systems of between 100 KW and one MW may have a different term if mutually agreed to by the parties.(h) If the investor owned QRU intends to accept proposals as part of a competitive solicitation for eligible energy resources from the QRU or from an affiliate of the QRU, it shall include a written separation policy and name an independent auditor whom the utility proposes to hire to review and report to the Commission on the fairness of the competitive acquisition process. The independent auditor shall have at least five years' experience conducting and/or reviewing the conduct of competitive electric utility resource acquisition, including computerized portfolio costing analysis. The independent auditor shall be unaffiliated with the utility; and shall not, directly or indirectly, have benefited from employment or contracts with the utility in the preceding five years, except as an independent auditor under these rules. The independent auditor shall not participate in, or advise the utility with respect to, any decisions in the bid-solicitation or bid-evaluation process. The independent auditor shall conduct an audit of the utility's bid solicitation and evaluation process to determine whether it was conducted fairly. For purposes of such audit, the utility shall provide the independent auditor immediate and continuing access to all documents and data reviewed, used or produced by the utility in its bid solicitation and evaluation process. The utility shall make all its personnel, agents and contractors involved in the bid solicitation and evaluation available for interview by the auditor. The utility shall conduct any additional modeling requested by the independent auditor to test the assumptions and results of the bid evaluation analyses. Within 60 days of the utility's selection of final resources, the independent auditor shall file a report with the Commission containing the auditor's views on whether the utility conducted a fair bid solicitation and bid evaluation process, with any deficiencies specifically reported. After the filing of the independent auditor's report, the utility, other bidders in the resource acquisition process and other interested parties shall be given the opportunity to review and comment on the independent auditor's report.(i) Responses to competitive solicitations shall be evaluated and ranked by the investor owned QRU. (I) In addition to the cost of the eligible energy and RECs, the QRU may take into consideration the characteristics of the underlying eligible energy resource that may impact the ability of the bidder to fulfill the terms of the bid including, but not limited to project in-service date, resource reliability, viability, energy security benefits, amount of water used, fuel cost savings, environmental impacts including tradable emissions allowances savings, load reduction during higher cost hours, transmission capacity and scheduling, employment, the long-term economic viability of Colorado communities, best value employment metrics, and any other factor the investor owned QRU determines is relevant to the investor owned QRU's needs.(II) Bids with prices that vary by year will be evaluated by discounting the yearly prices at the utility discount rate.(III) An investor owned QRU is not required to accept any bid and may reject any and all bids offered. However, each solicitation shall culminate in a report detailing the outcome of the solicitation and identifying which bids were selected, which were rejected, and why.(IV) For purposes of comparing bids for RECs only with bids for electricity and RECs, the investor owned QRU shall assign a value for the electricity and subtract this value from the electricity and RECs bid, and evaluate bids on the basis of RECs only. The investor owned QRU shall include, as part of its compliance plan, a description of its methodology and price(s) it intends to use for this evaluation.(j) Within 15 days of the due date for bids in a competitive solicitation, the investor owned QRU shall notify respondents as to whether their bid has met the bid submission criteria.(k) Upon ranking of eligible bids to a competitive solicitation, each investor owned QRU shall within 15 days indicate to all respondents with which proposals it intends to pursue a contract.(l) For eligible energy resources greater than 250 kW, the owner shall provide, at the QRU's request, real time electronic access to the QRU to system operation data. In the event that an eligible energy resource greater than 250 kW also collects meteorological data, the owner shall provide, at the QRU's request, real time electronic access to the QRU to such meteorological data.38 CR 17, September 10, 2015, effective 9/30/201539 CR 06, March 25, 2016, effective 4/14/201639 CR 08, April 25, 2016, effective 5/15/201640 CR 22, November 25, 2017, effective 12/15/201742 CR 03, February 10, 2019, effective 3/2/201942 CR 07, April 10, 2019, effective 4/30/201942 CR 09, May 10, 2019, effective 5/30/201943 CR 08, April 25, 2020, effective 5/15/202043 CR 12, June 25, 2020, effective 7/15/202043 CR 20, October 25, 2020, effective 11/14/202044 CR 13, July 10, 2021, effective 7/30/202144 CR 24, December 25, 2021, effective 1/14/202245 CR 18, September 25, 2022, effective 10/15/202246 CR 02, January 25, 2023, effective 2/14/2023