ELECTRICITY FROM WYOMING WINDS USED IN OREGON

Beginning April 22,1999 Eugene Oregon residents started harnessing the Wyoming winds to run their toasters, computers, lights, heaters and other electricity-eating devices.

The Eugene Water & Electric Board has chosen Earth Day to launch its wind power marketing campaign, which enables any of the utility’s 75,000 customers to buy wind-generated electricity as a percentage of their total power bill.

When combined with transmission costs, wind power costs about 7 cents per kilowatt hour, almost 70 percent higher than current rates. The cost of electricity from fuel powered generators may rise while the price of electricity from wind powered generators continues to fall.

Customers who want to support wind power can do so for only a few dollars per month. Costs vary according to consumption and the percentage of wind power people choose.

Under a new billing system developed by the utility, customers can dedicate as little as 10 percent or as much as 100 percent of their electricity bills to pay for power generated by EWEB’s Wyoming wind farm. Customers who prefer to buy no wind power will see no rate increases.

Utility officials say wind power is one of the cleanest, most Earth-friendly sources available and doesn’t have the negative environmental impacts that coal or oil-fired power plants have.

“The EWEB wind power program really offers customers a way to act on the adage, ‘think global, act local,’  said Mat Northway, program manager for the municipal utility. “Eugeneans have encouraged EWEB to pursue renewable generation sources and have even indicated a willingness to pay more for clean resources, such as wind.”

That will be put to the test with the startup of a wind generation plant in southeast Wyoming, owned jointly by EWEB and PacifiCorp.  The Foote Creek Rim project can generate up to 41.4 megawatts of electricity, of which EWEB has a 21 percent share.  Money generated from wind power sales is intended to pay off EWEB’s $13 million investment in the wind turbines and fund a portion of its operational costs. The payback period is 25 years.

EWEB commissioners have said they want the Wyoming plant to pay for itself through higher rates or by selling the power on the open market.

The Wyoming wind plant is one of several being built around the country to take advantage of improved technology that has lowered the cost of producing power from the large turbines.  Although still not equal to low-cost hydroelectric power in the Northwest, the cost of producing wind power has fallen by more than 70 percent since the mid-1980s.

THE BILL: A customer choosing a 10 percent wind power option would pay an additional $3.09 for every 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumed.

That compares with an additional $7.73 per 1,000 kilowatt hours for the 25 percent option, $15.45 for the 50 percent option and an additional $30.90 for the 100 percent wind power option.

The average residential customer uses 1,250 kilowatt hours per month and pays $54.46 (including a $5 basic charge).   A customer using that much electricity would pay an additional $3.85 per month for the 10 percent wind power option or up to an additional $38.50 a month for 100 percent wind power.

 

Tennessee Valley Authority to offer energy from renewable sources

By Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times/Free Press

Tuesday, November 30, 1999

Most electric users in the Tennessee Valley say they would prefer getting their electricity generated from solar, wind or other renewable sources.

By next summer, consumers in much of the Valley will be able to choose such "green power" — if they are willing to shell out more of their own green to pay for it.

Despite the recent community rejection of a windmill project at Covenant College, TVA is moving ahead with plans for a pilot program in Chattanooga and nine other markets to allow consumers to buy power generated from renewable sources. Consumers participating in the test program next year will probably have to pay $2 to $10 more per month on their electric bill if TVA's program resembles that of similar programs under way at more than two dozen other utilities.

"The initial test won't be much in the grand scheme of all of TVA", said Libby Hill, the green power marketing coordinator for the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition in Knoxville. "But it's a start in the right direction and is important to show the viability of this approach. I'm afraid if this flops, it will be hard to convince other distributors to try it".

EPB in Chattanooga is one of 10 distributors that will offer consumers the green power option, starting next spring. In the market test to determine consumer interest, TVA will offer 3 to 6 megawatts of renewable energy to its customers. Generation facilities to supply power from wind, solar or landfill gas are expected to be built in or near the TVA region.

If the market test is successful, green power could be offered to all consumers throughout the TVA service area by the end of 2003.

Advocates of renewable energy contend that the cost of solar-, wind- and biomass-generated power will get relatively cheaper as it becomes more common and as pollution controls on conventional coal-fired plants become stricter. But in today's market, renewable energy is usually much more expensive than coal, hydro or even nuclear power.

To help ensure that TVA doesn't try to "green wash" what it markets as environmentally clean energy, a California company will certify the renewable energy bought or generated at TVA. The Center for Resource Solutions in California and TVA's Green Power Marketing Team have determined that green power must come from the sun, wind or landfill methane gas.

When TVA asked for proposals for green power last year, 22 companies responded. Some of the proposals were for energy generated from wood waste, but that approach was rejected by environmentalists fearful that that would encourage more tree cutting in the region.

"We want to let people know where we are in our green power initiative and to get their input on certification of what is considered green power", said Susan Ross, director of TVA's green power program. "Our surveys have shown that people like renewable power, especially solar power, and may be willing to pay a bit more for it. But we want to gain as much public comment as we can before we proceed".

Ms. Ross said TVA was disappointed that its first announced green power project — three windmills proposed at Covenant College atop Lookout Mountain — was turned down by the college because of community opposition. But she said TVA has since received proposals to locate windmills on a dozen other sites in the Valley.

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