The bids are for a contract of at least three years with an estimated worth of about $340 million, according to county officials. The program seeks to displace PG&E as the area's dominant electricity supplier, a move that supporters say would boost support for renewable energy and spur investment in local power projects.
The responses, received Friday, came mostly from large national and multinational energy suppliers, including Calpine Corp., the Houston-based operator of The Geysers, already the source of about a quarter of California's renewable energy and set for a $700 million, 100 MWe expansion. Last year, officials said the first of two new plants could start production in 2014 if they could land contracts for the energy.
The county is looking for up to 355 MWe, enough for about 220,000 metered residential and commercial customers, or about 80 percent of those served by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in the county.
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