Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM)

The Renewable Auction Mechanism (“RAM”) Program was established by the CPUC in Decision 10-12-048 on December 17, 2010. This program was established to provide a streamlined process for PG&E to procure energy from new RPS eligible generators. The energy procured from this solicitation will be applied towards PG&E’s overall long-term RPS procurement goals.

PG&E filed Advice Letter 3809-E (PDF, 3.6 MB) on February 25, 2011. That Advice Letter sets forth PG&E’s proposed implementation process and structure for the RAM Program. In response to Resolution E-4414 issued on August 18, 2011, PG&E filed Advice Letter 3905-E (PDF, 2.2 MB) on September 19, 2011 with modifications.

Below is the schedule of the 2011 RAM Solicitation as outlined in Compliance Advice Letter 3905-E.

Bidders' Conference

On October 28, 2011, PG&E hosted the RAM Bidders' Conference at its San Francisco headquarters. The presentation materials, attendance list and the Q&A's are posted below.

2011 RAM Bidders' Conference (PDF, 382 KB)
Attendance List (XLS, 49 KB)
Questions and Answers (DOC, 62 KB)

Event	Date/Time
PG&E files compliance filing	September 19, 2011
Bidders' Conference registration deadline	October 25, 2011
Bidders' Conference	October 28, 2011 from 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (PPT)
PG&E starts accepting Offers	November 1, 2011
Deadline for Participants to submit Offers	November 15, 2011 no later than 12:00 P.M. Pacific Prevailing Time
Selected and Waitlisted Participants notified	January 31, 2012
Execution of final Agreements	March 12, 2012

PG&E has developed an interactive, Google-based map of its service territory. The map is a tool to help renewable energy developers identify potential project sites, but it is not a guarantee that generators can interconnect at any particular time and place.

Distribution and Transmission information

The Generator Interconnection Procedure pursuant to the WDT and CAISO Tariff consists of three application processes: (1) The “Fast Track Process” for generators 5 MW (2 MW on 12kV, 3MW on 21kV, and 5MW on higher voltages) in size that pass the “Fast Track Screens” (2) the “Independent Study Process” for all generators that are electrically independent from another generator or cluster of generators, and (3) the “Cluster Study Process” for interconnection requests that do not qualify for the Fast Track Process or the Independent Study Process. Currently, per Section 4.6 of CAISO’s tariff, “full capacity” deliverability assessments are only available for interconnection customers under the Independent Study Process or Cluster Process. Thus, unless CAISO adopts a tariff amendment or interprets its existing tariff otherwise, it appears as though customers seeking to interconnect using either PG&E's revised WDT Fast Track process or the CAISO's Fast Track process would not be eligible for "full capacity" deliverability assessments.

For more information about the interconnection process, please visit PG&E's Wholesale Generator Interconnections website. Sellers may also send an email to PG&E’s Generation Interconnection Services at gen@pge.com.

Any application for interconnection to PG&E's distribution system must be directed to PG&E's Generation Interconnection Services at gen@pge.com.

Offer Submission

Participants may offer various contract capacity sizes for a project. You will need to submit multiple RAM Offer Forms to PG&E. To clearly identify the variations, the fields (1) Developer Name, (2) Full Legal Project Name, (3) ERR Type, and (4) Total Number of Offers must be the same for each Offer Form. In addition to submitting multiple Offer Forms for the capacity size variations, you must also submit mutlipe completed RAM PPA Cover Sheets.

When submitting your offers, please limit the size of your emails to (inclusive of attachments) 10 MB. If you need to submit multiple emails for an offer, please clearly identify your submission by using the convention in the email subject header "Project Name Email 1 of X".