With its new agreement with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), power aggregator New Energy Ventures, Inc. (NEV) stands poised to enter California's retail market with the advent of competition.
NEV has agreed to purchase 200 megawatts (Mw) of surplus electricity from BPA for five years beginning January 1, 1998, with an option for an additional 200 Mw of surplus firm power for five years from the time the option is exercised. NEV also will purchase seasonal economy power, which sells for less than 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
NEV will purchase the seasonal energy in advance. The price of the surplus firm-power purchases was not disclosed for competitive reasons, but the total value of the electricity purchases runs hundreds of millions of dollars. Still, NEV estimates that even with the PUC-imposed competitive transition charge for stranded-cost recovery, customers would save over 10 percent at first, and eventually over 25 percent, of the price charged by their local utility.