Los Angeles (Platts)--12Jan2012/206 pm EST/1906 GMT

The California Public Utilities Commission approved on Thursday more than 1,000 MW in renewable resource contracts that Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison have signed with developers.

Two of the five contracts are for wind resources and the remainder are for solar photovoltaic projects. All are intended to increase the utilities' procurement of renewables under California's Renewable Portfolio Standard requiring retail electricity sales in the state to reach 33% by 2020. All contract price information is considered confidential and was not released.

PG&E won approval for its bilateral, 25-year power purchase agreement with NextEra Energy Resources affiliate Montezuma Winds II for new wind resources totaling 78.2 MW. The project is to be built on private land in Solano County in Northern California and is expected to come online in November when electricity deliveries are to begin.

SoCal Ed won approval for three 20-year power purchase agreements with Solar Star California, all owned by SunPower. The Solar Star contracts cover new solar PV projects totaling 711 MW. The 110-MW Quinto project will be built in Kern County, California, and will come online by December 1, 2014. The 325-MW AVSPI and the 276-MW AVSPII projects will both be built in the Tehachapi area located in both Kern and Los Angeles counties. Both are scheduled to come online by October 31, 2015.

SDG&E won approval for an amended 20-year power purchase agreement with Ocotillo Express, owned by Pattern Energy Group, for between 265 MW and 315 MW of wind resources to be built in Imperial County, 25 miles west of El Centro. After being selected in SDG&E's 2009 RPS solicitation, the first contract's price was reduced and the online date advanced one year to December 31, 2012. SDG&E expects the project will provide 299 MW of capacity.