As it previewed last month, Southern California Edison Co. Friday issued a request-for-offers (RFO) for long-term natural gas supply deals running up to 59 months in duration — both gas tolling arrangements for its power supplies and financial hedge products to protect against future wholesale price spikes. A conference call for potential bidders will be held by Edison April 18 (10 a.m., 866-858-1283).

Edison’s current RFO schedule calls for contracts to be awarded in mid-July, the utility said in its written announcement.

The utility said it is seeking the tolling arrangements for both its new Mountainview Power Plant in Redlands, CA, 70 miles east of Los Angeles, and to mitigate its gas price exposure related to its energy purchased under ongoing qualifying facility (QF) contracts with independent electricity producers.

In addition, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is seeking offers for financial natural gas products for up to 59 months for the state’s tolling contracts managed by Edison’s utility, according to an Edison spokesperson. “Edison encourages offers for gas supply from new gas infrastructure projects, such as liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and new pipeline capacity,” a spokesperson said.

RFO documents, submittal instructions, offer submission deadlines, and transaction-specific terms/conditions are available on the utility’s website: www.sce.com.

“Our natural gas requirements continue to expand because the region we serve is growing and a large portion of our generation portfolio, indeed a large portion of the generation in California, is natural gas-fueled,” said Pedro Pizarro, Edison’s senior vice president for power procurement. “Our RFO solicits longer contracts than are common in order to protect our customers from the level of short-term price volatility seen during 2005.”

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