BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Negotiate and Execute the Rate Agreement with the Power and Water Resources Pooling Authority for the Rehabilitation of the Almaden Campus Solar Carport, at a Not-to-Exceed Rate of $132 Per Megawatt Hour (San Jose) (District 4).
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Authorize the Chief Executive Officer to Negotiate and Execute the Rate Agreement with the Power and Water Resources Pooling Authority for the rehabilitation of the Almaden Campus Solar Carport at a not-to-exceed rate of $132 per megawatt hour.
Body
SUMMARY:
Background:
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) recognizes the benefits of developing in-county solar projects to help diversify Valley Water's energy portfolio and improve power resiliency. In-county onsite solar development is a subset of a larger effort to improve power resiliency and may be supplemented in the future by a battery storage system as battery technologies become more cost effective. Additionally, solar projects constructed at Valley Water facilities are not subject to utility transmission and distribution (T&D) charges and can directly offset the electricity purchased from the utility grid at that facility.
Since 2004 Valley Water has been producing solar power at the Almaden Campus. However due to performance issues, on March 27, 2018, the Board of Directors authorized District Counsel to accept a settlement offer from BP Solar International (BP Solar) for the defective solar panels at the Almaden Campus carport installation. The carport solar panels were removed in January 2019 to meet the conditions of the settlement letter.
In preparation for the solar panel removal and in support of the Board Ends Policy 4.3.1 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality by 2020, Valley Water released a Request for Proposals (RFP) through its joint powers authority, the Power and Water Resources Pooling Authority (PWR...
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