Citing changes in market conditions, Southern California Edison (SCE) announced last week that it is beginning the process of reforming the standard Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) it uses for its California Renewable Energy Small Tariff (CREST) program. CREST is SCE’s feed-in tariff program for eligible renewable energy projects under 1.5 MW. The PPA for each of these projects is a standard, non-negotiable PPA under either a full buy/sell or excess power purchase program for a term of 10, 15, or 20 years. Of the 247.7 MW allocated to SCE by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) for CREST, SCE states that it has 214.1 MW either under contract or in the queue.

In its press release, SCE states that it will publish the proposed pro forma PPA on its website on June 2. It also states that the proposed “CREST PPA is based on SCE’s pro forma Solar Photovoltaic Program PPA for projects less than 5 MWs, and has been modified to make it applicable to all technology types and to be in compliance with the requirements of the CREST Tariff and CPUC Decision (‘D.’) 07-07-27.” Comments on the proposed PPA will be due by June 22, with the submission of the new PPA to the CPUC planned for August 2011.