Louisiana lets companies buy 500 MW more renewable energy – pv magazine USA

July 9, 2024 William Driscoll

The Louisiana Public Utility Commission has issued a rule giving large commercial and industrial customers in the state a new way to access renewable energy of up to 500 MW, saying customers need renewable energy “to remain competitive.”

Louisiana currently has 600 MW of solar power, less than 1% of the state’s electricity needs, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a national solar trade group.

Gulf States Renewable Energy Industries Association member companies “are very encouraged by this consumer demand for renewable energy development,” said Monika Gerhart, the group’s executive director. GSREIA and many other parties intervened in or participated in the four-year regulatory process that led to the rule.

Under the rule, a large electricity customer can notify the utility that provides it with electricity of its intent to seek a “covered” power purchase agreement (PPA). A covered PPA, the rule says, is an agreement regarding the capacity, energy, and renewable attributes of a renewable generator that is negotiated between the customer and the generator owner and then executed by those parties and the customer’s utility.

The rule provides an additional renewable energy option beyond the standard PPA option. For example, McDonald’s has two PPAs with Lightsource bp to purchase solar power from projects in Louisiana, one for the entire 180 MW project output and the other, alongside eBay, to purchase a portion of the 345 MW project output.

Once a customer notifies a Louisiana utility of its intent to apply for a PPA with a sleeve, the utility must design a rate schedule and submit it to state regulators within 60 days. Regulators then have 90 days to approve or reject the rate schedule.

The utility must specify in its price list the fees and customer credits for the sleeve PPA and how they are determined. Typically, a credit for the accredited power delivered by the renewable generator is included.

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For each utility, the rule limits the maximum amount of renewable capacity eligible for sleeved PPAs to 5 percent of the utility’s peak summer demand. Entergy Louisiana, the state’s largest utility, recently experienced a peak summer demand of nearly 10,000 MW, so for that utility, 500 MW of renewable capacity (5 percent of 10,000 MW) would be eligible for sleeved PPAs.

The Louisiana rules are available on pages 29–37 of this document.