Texas utility CPS Energy has reached agreements to purchase an additional 100MW of solar and 50MW of energy storage capacity for its FlexPOWER Bundle initiative.
The solar capacity part will see Ashtrom Renewable Energy, the renewable energy arm of Israeli conglomerate Ashtrom Group, provide 100MW of the El Patrimonio solar project in Bexar County, Texas, in collaboration with renewable energy project developer OnPeak Power. This power purchase agreement is a 20-year contract with an anticipated commercial operation date of May 2025.
Energy investor Eolian will provide CPS Energy with the exclusive right to dispatch a 50MW, two-hour duration energy storage project located in Bexar County, Texas. Combined with the operating flexibility offered by energy storage, this location will further improve CPS Energy system resiliency as well as customer reliability. The agreement is a 20-year contract, and it is expected to be commercially operational in December 2024.
CPS Energy also secured an agreement for 500MW of firming capacity from a gas-fired power plant.
“The FlexPOWER Bundle was created to further diversify our generation mix, which we have accomplished. Securing these last three agreements marks the end of a more than two-year-long process that the CPS Energy team has been working on,” said Rudy Garza, president and CEO of CPS Energy.
The bundle stemmed from the request for proposals launched in 2020. The FlexPOWER Bundle will deliver up to 580MW of solar, 50MW of storage and 500MW of natural gas firming capacity.
CPS Energy will launch a new RFP in Q1 2023 to procure up to an additional 320MW of solar.
