wiredinUSA October 2013

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wiredInUSA - October 2013 23
Geothermal agreement
for California
The Imperial Irrigation district (IID) has
signed a ten-year power purchase
agreement with Southern California
public power authority (SCPPA) for
12MW of geothermal energy from the
Heber-1 geothermal power plant in
Heber, California. The agreement follows
a ten-year agreement signed between
the project’s owner, Ormat Technologies,
and SCPPA to deliver electricity from
Heber 1 beginning 16th December 2015.
The Ormat/SCPPA agreement calls for
the supply of 46MW, of which the Los
Angeles department of water and power
will receive 34MW and IID will secure the
remaining 12MW.
With the receipt of 12MW power from
Heber 1, IID will serve approximately 7,400
homes in its service territory and curb
greenhousegas emissions by 70,500metric
tons per year. The additional geothermal
power increases IID's renewable resource
mix to approximately 25 percent from the
current 20.4 percent.
It will also help IID to meet the California
law that requires utilities to generate and
retail 20 percent renewable electricity by
2013, increasing to 25 percent by 2016
and 33 percent by 2020.
Interim energy manager at IID, Carl Stills,
said that the agreement will help IID to
diversify its energy portfolio by integrating
renewableenergy, and that thecompany
was “thrilled” to have contracted the
supply of geothermal power from a local
resource.