The pattern of wholesale power sales in California in the first quarter of 2019 revealed the strengthening shift in sales to Community Choice Aggregators, or CCAs, according to data filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and compiled by S&P Global Platts.
Total wholesale power sales in the California Independent System Operator market in Q1 2019, rose 18% to 89.3 million MWh. Over the same time period, sales just to CCAs rose 114% to total 11.952 million MWh in Q1 2019, up from 5.577 million MWh sold in Q1 2018.
In Q1 2018, sales to CCAs represented 7.3% of all wholesale power sales. In Q1 2019, sales to CCAs represented a near doubling, to 13.3% of total sales, according to the data published in S&P Global Platts' Power Sales Analysis.
Seventeen CCAs bought power from 28 sellers in Q1 2019, compared to just 10 CCAs buying power from 22 sellers in Q1 2018.
The leading CCA buyer was Clean Power Alliance, which is an electricity provider across Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Southern California. CPA says it is now serving close to 1 million customers in 31 communities. In Q1 it bought 2.1 million MWh of power, compared to 65,719 MWh in Q1 2018. Southern California Edison is delivering power to CPA's customers.
The second biggest buyer in Q1 2019 was East Bay Community Energy, known as EBCE, which launched in June 2018. It bought 1.77 million MWh. Marin Clean Energy, the oldest CCA, which was founded in 2010, was the fifth most active buyer, with 1.22 million MWh purchased, compared to 1.13 million MWh purchased in Q1 2018, an increase of 8.2%.
According to the California Community Choice Association, there are now 19 CCAs serving eight million customers in the state.
EXELON SALES TO CCAS UP 49.6% YEAR-OVER-YEAR
The biggest power seller to California CCAs in Q1 2019 was Exelon Generation, which reported selling 2.46 million MWh, or 20.6% of the total sales to CCAs.
Exelon Generation & Affiliates reported 119 million MWh of total wholesale power sales across the US in Q1 2019, making it the leading seller among 570 companies that reported sales to FERC. It reported 4.97 million MWh of total sales in Cal-ISO.
With the growth in the number of buyers, Exelon's sales to CCAs grew year-over-year by 49.6%.
The Energy Authority, Morgan Stanley Capital Group, Shell Energy North America and Direct Energy Business Marketing each also benefited from more buyers and reported triple-digit sales growth over Q1 2018.
NextEra Energy Marketing, which had negligible sales in Q1 2018, and Avangrid Renewables, which reported no sales to CCAs in Q1 2018, had year-over-year growth of 686% and 2,053%, respectively, in Q1 2019.
Among the largest transactions in Q1 was The Energy Authority's sale of 1 million MWh delivered to Clean Power Alliance at SP15, Exelon's supply of 553,824 MWh sold to Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority and delivered at NP15, and Morgan Stanley Capital Group's sale of 520,360 MWh to East Bay Community Energy delivered at NP15.
CALPINE TOP RESOURCE ADEQUACY SELLER TO CCAs
The CCAs purchased 11,493 MW-months of resource adequacy in Q1, according to the PSA data.
Clean Power Alliance and Marin Clean Energy were the two top buyers, buying a combined 4,404 MW-months of RA, or roughly 38.3% of the total.
The leading seller of resource adequacy to the CCAs in Q1 2019 was Calpine Energy Services, with 6,412 MW-months sold. NRG Power Marketing was second, with 1,575 MW-months sold in Q1 2019.
Ranked third was AES Redondo Beach, followed by Shell Energy North America and Tenaska Power Services.
