Renewable

March 18 (SeeNews) - The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) gave the 392-MW Ivanpah concentrating solar power (CSP) park more time to reach the output levels agreed in its power purchase agreement (PPA).

As previously reported, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) has agreed to give the owners of the power plant until end-July 2016 to improve performance. The forbearance agreements, which could be extended by a further six months, were approved by the PUC yesterday.

The CSP park in the Mojave Desert is a partnership between NRG Energy (NYSE:NRG), Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and BrightSource Energy Inc. NRG disclosed in November that Ivanpah was not likely to meet its obligations under the PPA for the first two years of operations. Under the terms of the contract, PG&E has the right to declare an event of default if Ivanpah units deliver less than the guaranteed power production in any performance measurement period.

California aims at a 50% renewable power share by the end of 2030. PG&E said recently that 29.5% of its retail electricity sales have been sourced from renewable energy in 2015.

The US state’s CSP parks produced 5,536 MWh on March 16, while solar photovoltaic (PV) generation stood at 53,294 MWh.