Southern California Edison has signed four long-term power purchase contracts with winning bidders in a competitive solicitation program designed to attract new power generation facilities to help service the region's growing power needs.

"We are comfortable there are adequate supplies to serve the demand by customers," said Marc Ulrich, director of energy planning for Southern California Edison. "We are working with Cal ISO and all other utilities to get a deeper look at the supply/demand balance for the summer."

The contracts represent a potential generating capacity of 1,351 megawatts and bring the results of Southern California Edison's new generation initiative to a total of 2,556 megawatts, enough power to serve 1.7 million Southern California households.

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Southern California Edison Valley Substation on Menifee Road in Romoland.

The groundbreaking for the projects is dependant upon the developers.

"This was the culmination of about of year and a half worth of proceedings with Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, some consumer groups and wholesale marketers involved in long-term procurement," Ulrich said. "We looked at territories, essentially the northern and southern part of California, and looked at the resource for supply and demand all the way to 2016."

"At about 2013 we have less reserves then we'd like to have," Ulrich said. "If the state of the world stays the way it is, we would run out of reserves in 2013."

Reserves ideally should exceed 115% of demand, Ulrich said.

The region will have less and less reserves but enough power through 2016 as long as there are no unforeseen contingencies, he said.

The new contracts are subject to California Public Utilities Commission approval.

The new contracts are the outcome of a plan recommended by Southern California Edison in response to state forecasts of inadequate new power plant construction.

The utility proposed offering 10-year power purchase contracts to new generation developers with the benefits and costs of the new resources allocated to all customers within Edison's service territory.

Following approval of the plan on July 20, 2006, Edison launched an open, competitive solicitation that produced a total of seven agreements with five different project developers who have agreed to construct new, state-of-the-art Southern California generating resources.

One of the four signed power purchase agreements, named the Sentinel, calls for three General Electric gas turbines that will generate 273 megawatts of energy in Riverside County.

The Riverside County project is slated to be online May 1, 2012.

Competitive Power Ventures in Silver Spring, Md., is the company awarded that contract.

The projects are the third tier of Edison power projects that were preceded by two projects totaling 945 megawatts, set to go online in August 2010.

The preceding projects include another Competitive Power Ventures facility in Riverside County that will feature a General Electirc gas turbine and generate 455 megawatts.

While Edison and other power companies worry about statewide power supplies in the next decade, the outlook for the coming months is far more optimistic.

"We're not expecting any blackouts," said Gregg Fishman, a spokesman for the California Independent System Operator Corp. "There will most likely be enough power to go around, but we are still waiting to get final word."

The California Independent System Operator is a not-for-profit public benefit corporation that manages the majority of California's high-voltage wholesale power grid.

The ISO's official energy assessment for the summer months will be released next month.

Despite the optimism, Fishman said it is ultimately dependent upon the weather.

"It depends a lot on the heat waves Mother Nature throws at us this summer," Fishman said. "An extended widespread heat wave that hits both ends of the state is something we're concerned about.

Fishman stressed that despite a favorable energy assessment, California's expansion is still an intangible.

"Even though the economy has slowed, California is still epxeriencing load growth," he said.

Another concern within the California Independent System Operator is the current state of hydroelectric power.

"It looked like it was going to be a decent year; we had a lot of storms and wet months in January and February," Fishman said.

"But March has been looking dry and what was looking to be a decent year water and snowpack-wise may be behind normal."