The local utility district is set to talk about committing itself to work with San Diego and decide how to coordinate solar power in the southern area of Imperial County.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors will talk over an agreement today with San Diego Gas & Electric related to renewable projects set to skip the IID system and go straight to San Diego, as well as how much has been overcollected from the district’s energy cost adjustment rate.
Staff will present a memorandum of understanding between SDG&E and IID to the Board of Directors for approval. The district has been in discussions with San Diego and the California Independent System Operator about a group of solar projects in the south county that would tie in to the Imperial Valley Substation and head west along the Sunrise Powerlink. Those projects would bypass the district’s system as the substation is jointly owned by IID and SDG&E. Other projects are asking to interconnect with facilities operated by IID.
Having the two options for connecting the energy producers has resulted in unnecessary complexities associated with delivering power from one area to another and the uncoordinated development of connection facilities that require more impacts on IID water and energy-related facilities than if IID were to coordinate it, according to the memorandum of understanding.
The memorandum, which is not a binding agreement, would commit the two organizations to the joint pursuit of a partial participating transmission ownership arrangement in the general area of the Imperial Valley Substation to accommodate the interconnection of the solar projects.
A final arrangement may be more than a year off as it would have to be approved by CalISO and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
District looking at energy cost adjustment
Even after the district adjusted its energy cost adjustment rates at the beginning of the year to reflect the price of fuel to deliver power, the IID still overcollected by $3 million in January, staff is set to report today.
Energy department staff members are scheduled to present a monthly ECA update for January, showing the most recent numbers before the data is posted online.
The ECA is a fluctuating charge to electricity customers, which rises and falls with the price of fuel to deliver power.
January’s $3 million amount combined with the amount from July to December 2011 show $23 million overcollected since the district board voted to adjust the ECA rate for the first time in years. It had been set at 5.01 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2006, and not adjusted after that.
However, last year the board voted to drop the rate and move toward a fluctuating ECA rate again. It was set at 4.19 cents per kilowatt-hour in July, and moved down to 3.24 cents per kilowatt-hour in January.
The board gets both a monthly and quarterly report, and that rate is adjusted quarterly.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
If you go
What Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors meeting
When 1 p.m. today
Where W.R. Condit Auditorium, 1285 Broadway, El Centro
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors will talk over an agreement today with San Diego Gas & Electric related to renewable projects set to skip the IID system and go straight to San Diego, as well as how much has been overcollected from the district’s energy cost adjustment rate.
Staff will present a memorandum of understanding between SDG&E and IID to the Board of Directors for approval. The district has been in discussions with San Diego and the California Independent System Operator about a group of solar projects in the south county that would tie in to the Imperial Valley Substation and head west along the Sunrise Powerlink. Those projects would bypass the district’s system as the substation is jointly owned by IID and SDG&E. Other projects are asking to interconnect with facilities operated by IID.
Having the two options for connecting the energy producers has resulted in unnecessary complexities associated with delivering power from one area to another and the uncoordinated development of connection facilities that require more impacts on IID water and energy-related facilities than if IID were to coordinate it, according to the memorandum of understanding.
The memorandum, which is not a binding agreement, would commit the two organizations to the joint pursuit of a partial participating transmission ownership arrangement in the general area of the Imperial Valley Substation to accommodate the interconnection of the solar projects.
A final arrangement may be more than a year off as it would have to be approved by CalISO and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
District looking at energy cost adjustment
Even after the district adjusted its energy cost adjustment rates at the beginning of the year to reflect the price of fuel to deliver power, the IID still overcollected by $3 million in January, staff is set to report today.
Energy department staff members are scheduled to present a monthly ECA update for January, showing the most recent numbers before the data is posted online.
The ECA is a fluctuating charge to electricity customers, which rises and falls with the price of fuel to deliver power.
January’s $3 million amount combined with the amount from July to December 2011 show $23 million overcollected since the district board voted to adjust the ECA rate for the first time in years. It had been set at 5.01 cents per kilowatt-hour in 2006, and not adjusted after that.
However, last year the board voted to drop the rate and move toward a fluctuating ECA rate again. It was set at 4.19 cents per kilowatt-hour in July, and moved down to 3.24 cents per kilowatt-hour in January.
The board gets both a monthly and quarterly report, and that rate is adjusted quarterly.
Staff Writer Elizabeth Varin can be reached at evarin@ivpressonline.com or 760-337-3441.
If you go
What Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors meeting
When 1 p.m. today
Where W.R. Condit Auditorium, 1285 Broadway, El Centro
