American Electric Power (AEP) group company AEP Energy Partners (AEPEP) has launched a tender seeking proposals to offtake power from new solar, new/repowered wind facilities, and build-own-transfer (BOT) of standalone battery energy storage system (BESS) in America's PJM service region.
Total capacity to be contracted is expected to be between 300 MW to 500 MW. The request for proposals (RFP) specifies that for wind and solar projects the offtake agreement will be for a period of 10 years, 12 years or 15 years, with commercial operations commencement date being between 2022 and 2024.
For BESS, the requirement is for up to 50 MW capacity having a minimum of 4 hour duration. AEPEP said this capacity will support its growing retail and wholesale load.
Last date to submit proposals is October 27, 2021, according to RFP documents available on the AEP's website. Shortlisted companies will be announced in early December 2021, while formal agreements are likely to be signed by Q2/2022.
AEPEP also shared that it has completed negotiations with projects submitted in response to the March 2021 RFP, and the projects not selected in that round will need to resubmit with the latest update (see US Utility Seeking Proposals For 500 MW AC PV Capacity).
AEPEP's parent company AEP has close to 30 GW of diverse energy generation portfolio, comprising more than 5.6 GW of renewable energy. By 2030, it aims to scale up its renewable energy generation portfolio to around 50% of total capacity, as it aims to reach net zero emission status by 2050.