SCE Powers Its Customers with Long‑Term Solar and Battery PPAs
Southern California Edison locks in decades of clean energy to lower their energy costs and increase profits through 20+ year solar and storage contracts; the same PPA model is now available at the rooftop level for families who want predictable, lower‑cost power.
Southern California Edison (SCE) isn’t just your power company—it’s also a major long‑term buyer of solar energy through power purchase agreements, or PPAs.¹ Over the last decade plus, SCE has repeatedly signed utility‑scale solar PPAs and published its own standard PPA contract forms, and it plans to keep using these deals as it adds more clean energy and battery storage to its grid.¹²³ For homeowners, that’s a strong signal: if the utility itself relies on PPAs to lock in long‑term power pricing, it makes sense to explore doing the same at the rooftop level.⁹
How SCE Uses PPAs to Buy Solar Power
SCE relies heavily on long‑term contracts with independent power producers rather than owning every solar plant it uses.¹ These contracts, called PPAs, commit SCE to buy electricity from a specific project at an agreed price for a fixed term, often 15–20 years.¹² One public example is a standard photovoltaic solar PPA template developed for SCE, which lays out how the utility pays for each megawatt‑hour produced over a 20‑year period.¹
Key features of that kind of agreement include:
The solar project owner builds, owns, and operates the plant.¹
SCE commits to buy all (or most) of the plant’s output at a set price per kWh, adjusted only by clearly defined formulas in the contract.¹
The contract term is long—typically around 20 years—to give both sides price certainty and support project financing.¹²
In other words, SCE locks in decades of solar energy at predictable prices instead of gambling on future market rates. That’s the same logic behind a residential solar PPA—just scaled up to hundreds of megawatts instead of a single roof.⁹
Why SCE Keeps Signing Solar PPAs
There are several reasons SCE continues to use solar PPAs as it transitions to cleaner energy.
1. Clean‑energy mandates and climate goals
California law requires utilities to deliver a growing share of their electricity from renewable sources and move toward a carbon‑free grid by 2045.⁴ Long‑term solar PPAs are one of the most straightforward ways for SCE to secure large blocks of renewable energy that count toward these targets.⁴⁷ SCE’s procurement filings and contract templates reflect this strategy: the utility runs solicitations for renewable projects and then signs PPAs that supply its Renewable Portfolio Standard obligations.⁴⁷
2. Cost control and price stability
Utility‑scale solar prices have dropped dramatically over the past decade, and long‑term PPAs let SCE lock in those low costs for many years.⁸ At the wholesale level, modern utility‑scale solar PPAs in high‑sun markets like California are often priced just a few cents per kWh.⁸ That helps buffer the utility from fuel price swings and wholesale market volatility, even though total retail rates still reflect other rising costs like wildfire mitigation, transmission, and distribution upgrades.⁷
3. Financing and project bankability
Southern California Edison locks in decades of clean energy to lower their energy costs and increase profits through 20+ year solar and storage contracts; the same PPA model is now available at the rooftop level for families who want predictable, lower‑cost power.
Solar developers need stable, predictable revenue to finance large plants. A 15‑ to 20‑year PPA with a creditworthy buyer like SCE is exactly what banks and investors look for before lending hundreds of millions of dollars to build a project.¹²³ Without these agreements, many big solar and storage plants simply wouldn’t get built at all.¹²
The same basic idea sits behind a residential PPA: the homeowner agrees to buy clean power at a known price path, and that commitment makes it possible to install the system without paying all the cost up front.⁹
Concrete Examples of SCE PPAs
This isn’t theoretical—there are multiple real‑world deals showing SCE using PPAs to secure clean energy.
A standard “Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for Photovoltaic Solar Power — Southern California Edison” details a 20‑year contract structure for a 250 MW solar plant, with SCE paying a fixed rate per unit of energy delivered.¹
CPUC resolutions describe batches of SCE renewable PPAs being submitted for approval and found compliant with the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard procurement rules.⁴
In 2024, Fervo Energy announced 320 MW of 24/7 geothermal power under long‑term PPAs with SCE, giving the utility firm clean baseload power through 15‑year contracts.⁵
Leeward Renewable Energy signed a 15‑year PPA with SCE for a 126 MW standalone battery storage project, showing that SCE now uses PPAs not just for generation but also for energy storage capacity.⁶
Taken together, these examples confirm that SCE uses PPAs as a core tool to expand its clean‑energy and storage portfolio.¹²³⁴⁵⁶
How SCE’s PPAs Parallel a Homeowner PPA
Many homeowners are wary of residential PPAs because they seem unfamiliar. In reality, SCE is doing something very similar on the wholesale side.
What SCE does with utility‑scale solar and storage PPAs:
Signs long‑term contracts, often 15–20 years.¹²⁵⁶
Pays a set price per kWh or per unit of capacity, with clearly defined indexation and performance rules.¹²
Uses that contracted clean energy to serve its customer base and hit state clean‑energy targets.⁴⁷
What a homeowner does with a rooftop solar PPA:
Signs a long‑term contract, often 20–25 years.⁹
Pays a fixed or gently escalating price per kWh for energy the home system produces, usually starting below the current utility rate.⁹
Uses that energy to offset grid purchases and reduce their monthly bill.⁹
In both cases, the basic trade is the same: swap uncertain future prices for a predictable contract.
SEE IF YOUR HOME QUALIFIES FOR PPA
PPAs, Battery Storage, and the Future Grid
SCE isn’t just signing PPAs for solar panels—it’s also contracting for energy storage so it can shift solar power into high‑demand evening hours and support grid reliability.⁵⁶ Utility‑scale contracts now frequently pair solar with large battery systems or add standalone storage to existing solar projects through new PPAs.⁵⁶⁸
For homeowners, the trend points in a similar direction:
Solar‑plus‑battery systems allow you to store daytime production and use it during expensive evening time‑of‑use periods, or during outages.⁹
As utilities adopt more time‑of‑use and export‑based solar billing plans, having storage on your side can make a meaningful difference in your actual bill and backup resilience.⁹
SCE’s own planning and contract decisions are a vote of confidence in the solar‑plus‑storage model. The same economic logic that makes these PPAs attractive for the utility can make homeowner‑level PPAs and financing options attractive at the household level.
SEE IF YOUR HOME QUALIFIES FOR PPA
What This Means for California Homeowners
A few big ideas come out of all this:
SCE relies on long‑term solar and storage PPAs as a mainstream, not fringe, strategy to meet clean‑energy goals and manage risk.¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷
Those PPAs are designed to lock in predictable clean‑energy pricing over 15–20 years, which is very similar in spirit to a residential PPA’s 20‑ to 25‑year price path.⁹
As California continues to push toward more renewables and more electrification (EVs, heat pumps, and other electric loads), both utilities and households face more exposure to long‑term power costs—making predictable contracts more valuable.⁴⁷⁸
If your entire energy spend is still on a variable SCE retail rate, you are fully exposed to whatever future rate decisions and grid costs come next. The fact that SCE itself signs long‑term PPAs for clean energy is a strong signal that locking in solar and storage through structured contracts is not a gimmick—it is a standard risk‑management strategy used at every level of the power system, from the grid down to individual homes.⁴⁷⁸⁹
SEE IF YOUR HOME QUALIFIES FOR PPA
Sources
World Bank – “Standard Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for Photovoltaic Solar Power — Southern California Edison (SCE).”
https://ppp.worldbank.org/library/standard-power-purchase-agreement-ppa-photovolatic-solar-power-southern-california-edison-sceSouthern California Edison – “2020 Pro Forma Renewable Power Purchase Agreement.”
https://www.sce.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/CRRAM6_ProFormaPPA.pdfSouthern California Edison – “Renewable Power Purchase Agreement – Disadvantaged Communities Green Tariff & Community Solar.”
https://www.sce.com/sites/default/files/inline-files/DAC_2021DisadvantagedCommunitiesPowerPurchaseAgreementBase.pdfCalifornia Public Utilities Commission – Resolution approving Southern California Edison renewable power purchase agreements (RPS procurement).
https://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/AGENDA_RESOLUTION/155533.htmFervo Energy – “Fervo Energy Announces 320 MW Power Purchase Agreements with Southern California Edison.”
https://fervoenergy.com/fervo-energy-announces-320-mw-power-purchase-agreements-with-southern-california-edison/Energy Storage News – “PPA with Southern California Edison for Leeward Renewable Energy’s First Standalone BESS.”
https://www.energy-storage.news/ppa-with-southern-california-edison-for-leeward-renewable-energys-first-standalone-bess/Southern California Edison – “Energy Procurement.”
https://www.sce.com/about-sce/energy-procurementBerkeley Lab analysis via HeatSpring – “Utility-Scale Solar PPA Price Trends.”
https://blog.heatspring.com/utility-scale-solar-ppa-price-trends/California Solar & Storage Association – “Going Solar FAQ” (description of third‑party solar PPAs for customers).
https://calssa.org/going-solar-faq
