Solar power supply deals move toward construction

Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive, the pow­er sup­pli­er for South Car­oli­na’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives, has com­plet­ed agree­ments with four solar devel­op­ers to build five renew­able ener­gy projects in South Car­oli­na. The solar-gen­er­at­ed pow­er to serve Cen­tral’s whole­sale pow­er needs — even­tu­al­ly as much as 308 megawatts (MW) of gen­er­at­ing capac­i­ty — will be built near George­town, Sum­merville, Hem­ing­way and out­side of Aiken. A remain­ing 117 MW share of the projects has been con­tract­ed by San­tee Coop­er, bring­ing the total devel­op­ments to 425 MW.

The pow­er pur­chase agree­ments (PPAs) with inde­pen­dent solar devel­op­ers were signed at fixed prices for up to 20 years.

Last year, the Cen­tral and San­tee Coop­er issued a joint request for pro­pos­als to devel­op­ers for up to 500 MW. They eval­u­at­ed 58 bids rep­re­sent­ing 3,625 MW total. San­tee Coop­er pro­posed devel­op­ing the renew­able pow­er sup­ply as a joint resource, but Cen­tral deter­mined it would be more cost-effec­tive to pur­sue its own con­tracts, even if the same devel­op­ers con­tract­ed with San­tee Coop­er. The final capac­i­ty size totaled 425 MW.

“This is one com­mon approach used by util­i­ties to add renew­able ener­gy to their port­fo­lio,” said Robert C. Hochstetler, Cen­tral’s CEO. “Cen­tral gets long-term flex­i­bil­i­ty as well as low­er pric­ing of renew­able resources for the ben­e­fit of our mem­ber-coop­er­a­tives.”

The solar devel­op­ers build­ing the projects are Bird­s­eye Renew­ables Ener­gy, Ecoplexus, John­son Devel­op­ment Asso­ciates and Sil­i­con Ranch. The devel­op­ers build and own their respec­tive projects and the util­i­ties buy the ener­gy out­put.

Solar pow­er gen­er­a­tion should be online some­time in 2023.

Below are Central’s power purchase agreements for its load share ratio:

Sil­i­con Ranch (SR)
Project Name(s): Lam­bert 1 & 2
Two 72.5 MW AC solar projects locat­ed near George­town

John­son Devel­op­ment Asso­ciates (JDA)
Project Name: JDA
54.4 MW AC solar project locat­ed near Sum­merville

Bird­s­eye Renew­ables Ener­gy (BRE)
Project Name(s): Chester White
54.4 MW AC solar project locat­ed in Aiken Coun­ty

Ecoplexus, Inc.
Project Name(s): Hem­ming­way
54.4 MW AC solar project locat­ed in Hem­ing­way

MW = megawatt, AC = alter­nat­ing cur­rent