New Western
award recognizes regional energy savers
 |
| Sub-zero, weather did not discourage UND
Electrician Darrel Iverson from claiming his Competitive
Edge Award from Western’s Upper Great Plains Regional
office. The award is a regional honor for individuals, groups
or organizations that contribute to Western’s energy
efficiency or renewable energy goals. |
Darrel Iverson, an electrician for the University
of North
Dakota Facilities Department's electrical team, was approved
by Western’s Upper
Great Plains regional office to receive the first-ever Competitive
Edge Award.
Western developed the award to commend individuals,
groups or organizations within its regional territories for
specific energy efficiency and renewable energy efforts. “We
wanted to draw attention to the energy-saving strategies and
ideas of our broad customer base,” said UGP Energy Services
Manger John Pankratz.
“There are innovative programs and people in our region
that go the extra mile to support Western’s mission and
programs. The Competitive Edge Award recognizes those programs
and people.”
The award honors Iverson for building the infrared
scanning program that has saved UND energy dollars and helped
to avoid costly power outages. Highlighted in the December 2003
Energy
Services Bulletin, the electrical team’s program
makes extensive use of IR cameras borrowed from the Equipment
Loan Program. Both Western and the North Dakota University
System have recognized Iverson for his leadership in IR scanning
program development.
Iverson has also been a great supporter of Western
programs and Western energy initiatives. The electrician hosted
a recent IR camera workshop at UND and assisted the instructor
in identifying “hands-on” scanning examples for
all attendees. “Darrel is dedicated to safety and efficiency,”
Pankratz said. “He’s helped us tremendously with
our program development and implementation.”
At the annual UND Facilities meeting January
28, Energy Services Representative Jim Bach presented Iverson
with the Competitive Edge Award and a letter signed by UGPR
Regional Manager Robert Harris.
Five power
companies take WWF clean energy challenge
Sacramento
Municipal Utility District and Waverly,
Iowa, Light and Power were among the first electric power
companies in the U.S. to join the World
Wildlife Fund’s PowerSwitch! Initiative.
PowerSwitch calls for electricity producers
and decision makers to make a major switch to clean energy and
asks utilities to undertake one or more target actions to reduce
their own carbon dioxide emissions. Those options include increasing
renewables to 20 percent of the utility’s portfolio by
2020, increasing energy efficiency or retiring the least efficient
half of coal generation by 2020.
Austin
Energy, Burlington
Electric Department and FPL
Group, Inc. joined the two municipal utilities in committing
to increase their use of renewable energy and improve the energy
efficiency of their operations.
A nationally recognized leader in renewable
resources and electric transportation, SMUD chose as its target
action generating 20 percent of its electricity from renewable
energy sources. Waverly Light and Power, the first public power
company in the Midwest to implement wind generation, committed
to increasing its energy efficiency by 15 percent by 2020.
Austin Energy and Burlington Electric Department
both committed to increasing their use of renewables and improving
energy efficiency. FPL Group, Inc., committed to increasing
energy efficiency through continued promotion of demand side
management projects and by improving energy efficiency in its
power generation facilities.
Colorado
renewables bill clears first legislative hurdle
Colorado moved one step closer to establishing
a state renewable portfolio standard in February when its House
of Representatives passed House Bill 1273, sponsored by Rep.
Lola Spradley, (R-Beulah),
by a vote of 39-26.
If enacted, the bill will require the state's
two investor-owned utilities, Xcel
Energy and Aquila,
to provide 500 MW of power from renewable energy sources by
2006, 900 MW by 2010 and 1,800 MW by 2020. The legislation applies
only to investor-owned utilities, exempting rural co-ops and
municipal utilities. The Colorado Senate will now take up consideration
of the bill.
According to the Colorado
Coalition for New Energy Technologies, the bill includes
a 150 percent "multiplier" for renewable energy generated
in Colorado's rural enterprise zones. That means that 100MW
of renewable power generated in a rural area would count as
150 MW toward meeting the bill's goals.
Proponents of HB 1273 note that the legislation
will help stabilize the state’s electricity rates, create
certainty in utility acquisition of future generation resources
and boost rural economic development. "Renewable energy
is smart for Colorado consumers and it's smart for our rural
communities," Spradley said in a previous statement. "Families
are being faced with skyrocketing electricity bills while cheap
sources of renewable energy go untapped. This bill changes that."
Spradley's press release noted that a broad coalition
of more than 20 municipalities, and more than 120 business,
agricultural interests and environmental groups had endorsed
HB 1273. Other supporters include Colorado
Farm Bureau, Colorado Oil
& Gas Association, Xcel Energy, Environment
Colorado and others.
Public involvement
sought to develop renewable energy tracking system
The Western Governors’
Association is working with the California
Energy Commission to develop a system that will track and
verify renewable energy generation in the West—a first
for the region.
Expected to come online in 2005, the Western
Renewable Energy Generation Information System will create a
market design and guidelines for tracking and trading renewable
energy certificates within the Western states region. “Western
states need a way to issue, track and verify renewable energy
generation for use by state regulators and voluntary green market
programs,” said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, WGA chairman.
Regulators, utilities, market participants,
tribes, developers and other stakeholders completed a survey
on the need for, and design of a tracking system last September.
Their responses were drafted into a report, Needs Assessment
for a Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System,
which was presented at public workshops in six Western states.
Following the workshops, the needs assessment
was revised and committees formed to make recommendations on
where the WREGIS would be housed and how it should operate.
WGA encourages all interested parties,
from consumers to utilities, to follow and comment on proposals
and recommendations developed over the next year. Western’s
Renewable Resource Program has added its support by actively
encouraging firm power customers to get involved in the project.
“Western conducted two Webcasts on WREGIS in January 2004,”
said Randy Manion, Western's Renewable Resources manager. “We
are also reaching out to individual consumer-owned utilities
with information about the tracking system.”
Stakeholders can track the process and
offer comments at the Western
Governors’ Association Web site or by joining the
Working
Group Listserve.
Riverside
extends electric economic development rate guarantee
Riverside,
Calif., Public Utilities Department expanded its economic
development incentive rate to provide larger, industrial-size
customers with a guaranteed rate for the final two years of
their four-year contracts, and make the rate available to include
more research, development and technology businesses.
“Relocating or opening a large business
is quite costly and is more likely to occur in Riverside if
we can provide potential customers with predictable rates in
years three and four,” Deputy Public Utilities Director
David Wright
said.
The incentive ED rate will extend a two-year
rate guarantee for a third year fixed at no more than 105 percent
of the tariff in place when the ED contract was signed, and
no more than 110 percent in year four. “For many businesses,
it pays a substantial portion of the cost to relocate to the
city," stated Wright.
RPU has offered an ED rate to new or expanding
electric customers within the city since May 2000. Since then,
RPU has signed 15 agreements that have brought more than 1,200
additional jobs, an investment of $170 million in taxable property,
$6 million in annual increased utility revenues, and $540,000
in additional General Fund transfer revenues into Riverside.
The new discount ED rate agreement offers a two-year
window of opportunity for businesses from the time the city
approves their rate to when they must sign a contract. Any non-listed,
new business customer with a projected minimum monthly demand
of at least 500 kW can take advantage of the ED rate. An existing
ED rate customer could apply it to an expanded new load that
is the greater of 50 kW or 20 percent of their base usage.
