Status Update
Coordinated Competitive Renewable Power Procurement

February 13, 2013 – The New England Governors’ July 2012 Resolution Directing the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCOE) to Implement a Work Plan for the Competitive Coordinated Procurement of Regional Renewable Power identified the goal of issuing a coordinated competitive solicitation for renewable power by December 2013. This status update provides interested stakeholders notice of activities underway.

• In accordance with the Work Plan that NESCOE adopted in November 2012, a Procurement Team (PT) and Legal Subteam have been formed.

• The PT and the Legal Subteam have begun discussing threshold commercial and legal issues, respectively, identified in the Work Plan. The PT is also working to develop a draft Request for Proposals and related solicitation documents, such as project scoring criteria and an illustrative Purchase Power Agreement.

• The Work Plan identified an indicative schedule, which did not estimate the time needed to address threshold issues. The PT is proceeding according to the contemplated schedule and the goal of releasing a solicitation by year’s end.

• In furtherance of the Resolution’s direction for state officials to identify processes necessary to execute coordinated procurement and the Work Plan’s identification of the need to address such threshold issues, the State of Connecticut has a statutory requirement to conduct a study of the State’s Renewable Portfolio Standards and will need to complete a subsequent legislative process to implement any recommended changes resulting from the RPS study. The schedule contemplated by the Governors’ Resolution and the timeline for activities set out in the Work Plan accommodates Connecticut’s need. The schedule also accommodates other states’ renewable power needs. Massachusetts plans to move forward with its first statutorily mandated procurement immediately, and then join with the other New England states for its second required procurement.

• Draft solicitation-related documents that are under development will be made available for stakeholder input before they are released to bidders. Future status updates and notices of stakeholder input opportunities will be available at www.nescoe.com under “2013 Solicitation”.