Bioenergy Renewable Auction Mechanism (BioRAM)

Bioenergy Renewable Auction Mechanism (BioRAM) Program

In 2016, the CPUC implemented Governor Brown’s October 2015 Emergency Order Addressing Tree Mortality by establishing the BioRAM program in Resolution E-4770. BioRAM uses the RPS standardized renewable auction mechanism (RAM) contract to streamline the procurement process. Subsequently, Senate Bill 859 (Chapter 368, Statutes of 2016)* directed additional BioRAM procurement from the IOUs, resulting in the procurement order of 146 MWs of bioenergy from High Hazard Zones (HHZ) fuel via Resolution E-4805.

Senate Bill 901 (Dodd, 2018) and SB 1109 (Caballero, 2022) further amended the BioRAM program which the CPUC implemented in January 2019 via Resolution E-4977 and October 2022 via Resolution E-5228, respectively. SB 1109(Caballero, Chapter 364, Statutes of 2022) extended eligible contracts and added the requirement that biomass resources cannot be located in a federal reserve or extreme non-attainment area for particulate matter or ozone. Recently, AB 2750 required the IOUs to seek contract extensions, or new contracts, of at least 5 years, if they expire before December 31, 2028. The CPUC implemented the program revisions through Resolution E-5376.

_{*Senate Bill 859 (Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, 2016) directs the CPUC to extend contracts for biomass facilities and addresses the statewide tree mortality issue by requiring that 60 percent of forest biomass used to create bioenergy is harvested from Tier 1 and Tier 2 high hazard zones. In 2018, Governor Brown signed SB 901 (Dodd, 2018), which modifies the HHZ definition and expands flexibility for certain BioRAM facilities that choose to modify their contracts.}

IOU BioRAM Procurement Orders
	PG&E	SCE	SDG&E
Emergency Order (Res. E-4770)	20	20	10
SB 859 (Res. E-4805)	43	44	9
Total	63	64	19

IOU BioRAM Contracts
IOU	Facility Name	Location	Capacity (MW)
PG&E	Burney	Shasta County, CA	29
PG&E	Wheelabrator Shasta	Shasta County, CA	34
PG&E	Woodland Biomass	Yolo County, CA	25
SCE	Rio Bravo Rocklin	Placer County, CA	24
SCE	Pacific Ultrapower Chinese Station	Tuolumne County, CA	18
SDG&E	Honey Lake Power Company / Greenleaf	Lassen County, CA	24
Total			154

High Hazard Zone Fuel Requirements

The IOUs are required to collect quarterly data from the BioRAM facilities to track the amount of HHZ feedstock that is being used to for bioenergy generation. In addition, the IOUs are required to perform an annual audit to verify the amount of HHZ feedstock that BioRAM facilities utilize on a calendar year basis and measure the verified amount.

HHZ feedstock usage data for the current IOU-contract BioRAM facilities is aggregated below. One bone dry ton (BDT) is approximately equivalent to 1 MWh of power.

High Hazard Zone (HHZ) Forest Fuel Usage from BioRAM Contracts
Year	BioRAM HHZ % Requirements	Percentage of Total Biomass Feedstock from HHZ Fuel	Total HHZ Delivered (Bone Dry Tons)	Total HHZ Usage To-Date (Bone Dry Tons)
2017	50%	54.6%	267,745	267,745
2018	60%	56.5%	671,847	939,592
2019	60% and 80%	84%	823,515	1,763,107
2020	60% and 80%	79%	829,522	2,592,629
2021	60% and 80%	82.5%	844,527	4,212,315
2022	60% and 80%	84%	951,677	5,136,208

BioRAM Non-Bypassable Charge

Senate Bill 859 directed that the costs from BioRAM procurement be allocated to all customers given that there are broad social benefits that are realized from supporting wildfire mitigation. In December 2018, the CPUC issued D.18-12-003 establishing the methodology that will be used to calculate total BioRAM costs, including the value of BioRAM RECs and Resource Adequacy, and the allocation of the costs.