Following a successful national ad campaign seeking requests for proposals (RFP), CPS Energy is now sorting through 36 proposals from 24 companies to bring up to 100 megawatts (MW) of solar-generated electricity to San Antonio.

Hundreds of companies – including individuals and other utilities – downloaded the RFP forms from CPS Energy’s Web site after reading catchy “personal ads” in newspapers such as the San Antonio Express-News, the Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News as well as trade publications.

“We expect to have our short list of bidders established by early December, then begin contract negotiations with the goal of signing one or more contracts by spring 2009,” said John Bonnin, CPS Energy manager of wholesale power marketing.  “Companies we sign contracts with will probably begin construction of solar power plants starting in late 2009 or early 2010.  Energy should begin flowing to CPS Energy customers in late 2010 or early 2011.”

From the short list, CPS Energy will select the technology or combination of technologies best-suited to meet the company’s requirements.  In turn, suppliers will install, own and operate the solar power plants, then sell all of the electrical output to CPS Energy just as wind-energy suppliers currently do.
CPS Energy already ranks no. 1 in the amount of wind energy capacity among the nation’s municipally owned utilities, Bonnin noted.  

“The addition of 100 MW of solar-generated electricity – enough to power 23,300 homes – will also make CPS Energy a leader in solar energy,” he said.  “We won’t own the solar generating installations – just as we don’t own the wind farms – but we will contract to buy the entire solar electrical output for 15 to 20 years.”

The two dozen bidders from across the U. S. and Europe submitted proposals on the following technologies: solar photovoltaic (photovoltaic [PV] silicon and thin film, and concentrating solar PV); and concentrating solar thermal (using a tower, thermal trough and dish).  One proposed solar plant will occupy more than 1,000 acres in West Texas and serve as a model for other utilities, while another proposed plant, smaller in scale, would be constructed near San Antonio and also be available for educational tours.

"Thinking outside the box and putting out the RFP in the form of ‘personal ads’ was very significant,” Bonnin said.  “We have been working on this solar project for about a year, and we had previously advertised only in trade publications, using formal language, with limited results.  This time, our clever ‘personal ads’ produced a lot of inquiries and a good list of qualified bids to choose from.”

The ads encouraged solar-electric generating companies to visit CPS Energy’s Web site, www.cpsenergy.com, for more information and to submit proposals.

CPS Energy’s in-house communications staff produced the “personal ads” with eye-catching titles such as “65-YEAR-OLD LOOKING FOR HOT NEW PARTNER,” “MATURE AND SERIOUS-MINDED, SEEKING COMMITMENT” AND “GREEN-MINDED TEXAN SEEKS SIZZLING RELATIONSHIP.”

“The tongue-in-cheek ads were not your typical ‘utility-oriented’ messages,” Bonnin explained.  “They were meant to be attention-getters so we could seriously pursue a new source of electric generation that does not produce any greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Currently, CPS Energy obtains up to 501 MW of wind-generated electricity from the Desert Sky and Cottonwood Creek wind farms near Iraan and Sweetwater, respectively – enough to power 115,000 homes.

“We have set a very ambitious goal for renewable-energy capacity,” said Mike Kotara, CPS Energy’s executive vice president for energy development, “and we intend to include a healthy amount of solar energy in our mix.” 

Kotara said CPS Energy recently stretched its renewable-energy goal upward – to achieve renewable energy capacity equal to 20 percent of customers’ peak electric demand by 2020, up from 15 percent.

“This means we will double our renewable capacity with another 75 MW wind farm coming online next month,” Kotara explained.  “By 2020, our 20-percent renewable-capacity goal should be around 1,200 MW, roughly equivalent to the capacity of two large conventional power plants.  Of this 1,200 MW, approximately 100 MW will be derived from non-wind sources such as solar and landfill gas.”