San Diego Gas & Electric enters two wind pacts
LOS ANGELES, June 5 (Reuters) - Sempra Energy's (SRE.N) utility unit San Diego Gas & Electric Co on Thursday said it has signed two power purchase agreements to buy power from a Montana wind farm with a capacity to make 210 megawatts of electricity.
At 210 MW, the two wind farms will add 635,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually to SDG&E's power portfolio, the utility said.
The power would be made at Naturener USA's soon-to-be installed wind turbines at the Glacier Wind farm in northwest Montana near Alberta.
The Great Falls Tribune in Montana recently reported that the Glacier Wind project will be completed by Oct. 31.
"The Naturener Glacier Wind energy agreements bring us closer to our goal of acquiring 20-percent of our energy portfolio from clean, green sources of energy," said Debra L. Reed, president and chief executive officer of SDG&E.
The Glacier Wind farm will have 140 turbines towering 250 feet (76.2 meters) tall.
The two power agreements begin in 2010. SDG&E in an announcement did not mention the duration of the pacts. A call to SDG&E was not immediately returned.
Currently, 6 percent of SDG&E's power portfolio comes from renewables such as wind, solar, and geothermal. Most of the utility's renewable power is in the form of solar power from the hot sunny areas east of San Diego.
Naturener is a wholly owned subsidiary of Grupo Naturener S.A., a renewable energy company based in Madrid, Spain.
Naturener in February 2007 bought Montana-based Great Plains Wind & Energy. Naturener in May 2007 agreed to buy for 300 million euros ($403 million at the time) 200 wind turbines from Spanish building and energy group Acciona (ANA.MC) for its Montana wind projects.
Naturener is a partnership formed by Belgium's Sapec (SAPEC.BR) and Spanish savings bank Caja Castilla La Mancha.
SDG&E serves about 1.4 million electricity customers and about 840,000 natural gas customers in San Diego and southern Orange counties in Southern California.
Sempra is based in San Diego. (Reporting by Bernard Woodall; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
