What is the Market Price Referent (MPR)?
The market price referent (MPR) represents the cost of a long-term contract with a combined cycle gas turbine facility, levelized into a cent-per-kWh value.
The MPR also represents a dividing line for bids submitted to the investor owned utilities for an RPS contract:
- Bid prices at or below the MPR may be accepted as per se reasonable by the CPUC.
- Bids priced above the MPR may face a stronger burden of proof in justifying the reasonableness of their contract price.
- Public Goods Charge funds have been made available to each IOU, on a pro rata basis, to cover the above MPR portion of the contract price of CPUC approved contracts.
Materials from the 2008 MPR Workshop held in March
The purpose of the workshop was to provide parties an opportunity to discuss technical issues related to the Market Price Referent (MPR) methodology. The workshop agenda and presentations can be downloaded below.
- 2008 MPR Workshop agenda
- MPR Market Price Risk, by Eric Cutter, Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (on behalf of Energy Division)
- MPR Capacity Factor, by William Marcus, JBS Energy, Inc. (on behalf of The Utility Reform Network)
- MPR Greenhouse Gas Adder, by David Schlissel, Synapse Energy Economics, Inc. (on behalf of The Union of Concerned Scientists)
- MPR Gas Methodology and Inputs, by Clyde Murley. (on behalf of The Union of Concerned Scientists)
2007 MPR
For more information about how the 2007 MPR was calculated, please see: