The Western Area Power Administration today (May 20) issued a Request for Proposals to purchase renewable energy certificates from small and minority-owned businesses and Indian Tribes. Up to 7,000 RECs per fiscal year will be purchased on behalf of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science's Berkeley Site Office and WAPA.
"WAPA is proud to be paving the way for meaningful collaboration with Tribes as they gear up to play a significant part in our national transition to clean energy," said Tracey LeBeau, Administrator and CEO of WAPA. "Doing business with Tribes boosts reservation-based economic sustainability in addition to the surrounding communities. We are hopeful this will be a win-win-win for DOE, WAPA and Tribes."
WAPA supports DOE's preference for tribal renewable energy and efforts to promote tribal renewable energy development, as authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Purchasing preference may be given to energy organizations majority-owned and controlled by one or more Indian Tribes and evaluated by the implementing guidance issued by DOE.
RECs represent the environmental sustainability attributes equivalent to one megawatt hour of electricity generated from a renewable energy source. These clean energy resources include solar, wind, marine/hydrokinetic, geothermal, hydroelectric, nuclear, renewably sourced hydrogen and fossil-fuel resources (if capturing and storing the carbon dioxide emissions). The renewable energy source must have been placed into service within 10 years prior to the start fiscal year 2024.
To incentivize sustainably sourced power, RECs can be sold separately from the underlying electricity with which they are associated. For purposes of this opportunity, RECs for purchase must be Green-e certified or equivalent, showing that none of the environmental attributes have been separately sold, given or otherwise transferred to another party. Upon purchase, the electricity that was split from the RECs is no longer considered "renewable," and it cannot be counted as renewable or zero-emissions by the buyer.
Proposals must be received via email on or before June 14, 2024, at 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time, to be considered for evaluation. See the RFP for full application details. WAPA will evaluate proposals based on past performance, price, location and creditworthiness, and DOE plans to select organizations to move into contract negotiations later this year.
This effort is part of WAPA's Renewables for Federal Agencies program in partnership with DOE's Federal Energy Management Program.
About WAPA: Western Area Power Administration owns and operates more than 17,000 miles of high voltage transmission in 15 states and annually markets and transmits more than 28,000 gigawatt-hours of clean, renewable power from 57 federal hydroelectric powerplants owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and International Boundary and Water Commission. Visit the website at www.wapa.gov.
CONTACT: Sandee Peebles, peebles@wapa.gov, 916-353-4454
For more information
12155 W Alameda Pkwy
Lakewood Colorado
United States 80228-8213
www.wapa.gov
