Tucson Electric looks to get power from big merchant solar plants | Business News

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TEP hit the headlines in 2017 when it signed a contract to get power from a 100-megawatt solar project south of Tucson for less than 3 cents per kWh plus 1.5 cents per kWh for storage – an industry low at the time.

This project, the Wilmot Energy Center, has been producing clean electricity as TEP’s largest solar resource since May.

Avoided electricity costs

Barrios noted that the avoided cost rate calculated for later large PURPA projects will continue to decrease.

That’s because the most expensive energy is displaced first, so subsequent projects displace less costly energy sources, resulting in lower avoided costs, he explained.

A spokesman for Clēnera, which was recently acquired by Israel-based Enlight Renewable Energy, also declined to discuss details of the proposed power purchase agreement through TEP, but said the company was optimistic about Arizona Solar.

Clēnera built what is now TEP’s second largest photovoltaic resource, the 35 MW Avalon I & II solar project in Sahuarita, which went online in phases in 2014 and 2016.

The company is also planning two 80 MW projects in Coconino County to be owned by Arizona Public Service Co.

“We see Arizona as a market in which we want to be active, and we already have an operational project in place with TEP and have a good relationship with them,” said Jared McKee, Vice President of Business Development at Clēnera. “We firmly believe that Arizona will continue to be a market where we want to invest our time and resources in projects that utilities find attractive.”

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