• RM Energy Services representative retires
• Transmission line brings opportunity to New Mexico, Colorado 
• Online service helps utilities find solar match
• ACORE publishes new master REC purchase, sale agreement
• Wall Street Journal story looks at economics of solar power

RM Energy Services representative retires

Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) presents Energy Services Representative Peggy Plate with a congratulatory letter on her retirement. Sen. Salazar was the keynote speaker at the Northern Colorado Clean Energy Utility Summit Feb. 22.

Western and customers in the Rocky Mountain Region said goodbye to Energy Services Representative Peggy Plate, March 2. Plate retired after 28 years of Federal service, most of those years spent helping Western's preference power customers use energy more efficiently. 

After starting her Federal career with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, Plate moved to Western in 1981and became an energy conservation specialist in 1983.  Shortly thereafter, she was in charge of the region's Conservation and Renewable Energy Program.  Since then, she has managed a highly visible, highly successful Energy Services program for Western’s Rocky Mountain Region.

RM customers have spent many hours with Plate, on the phone and at their facilities, discussing their needs and devising ways to meet them. Throughout her career, Plate has been actively involved with organizations that support our customers, including the Colorado Power Council, Rocky Mountain Electric League, Colorado Association of Municipal Utilities and Colorado Rural Development Council.

Through Plate’s efforts, RMR customers piloted several remote photovoltaic applications. She was instrumental in establishing the Photovoltaic Services Network as a means of making bulk equipment purchases that lower the cost of installing photovoltaics. 

Plate also facilitated the development of a 12-year irrigation efficiency program involving five agencies. The project improved irrigation energy efficiency and crop management in Colorado and showed farmers how to save money using new technology.  

Recently, Plate coordinated demand-side management, motor efficiency and power factor improvement workshops to help customers improve their energy use.  Her efforts to negotiate and develop renewable energy contracts for Federal agencies and Western customers have enabled them to reach mandated renewable energy goals.  In January, Plate received the Excellence in Sustainable Resources award from Fort Carson, Colo., for negotiating a renewable energy certificate purchase and assisting the Army installation with installing a large solar system.   

Fort Carson is not the only Western customer to recognize Plate's work.  At the Arkansas River Power Authority's 2001 annual meeting, Plate received the organization’s Award for Excellence. The Poudre School District Board in Fort Collins, Colo., recognized her efforts with Fort Collins Electric Utility to help the school district save energy and dollars.  Western honored Plate in 2001 with the Exceptional Service Award. Her numerous awards are a testament to a customer-focused career that has been a credit to Western.

Just one week before her retirement, at the Northern Colorado Clean Energy Utility Summit in Fort Collins, Senator Ken Salazar (D.-Colo.) presented Plate with congratulatory letter. Senator Salazar praised Plate’s Federal service and her commitment to promoting renewable energy.

Western customers and coworkers alike will miss Plate's energy, enthusiasm and expertise. We wish her the best of luck and success in her retirement.

After 12 years of construction, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association energized its new 117-mile, 230-kV Colorado-New Mexico Interconnection Project on Feb. 1, 2007.

The transmission line connects electrical substations in Walsenburg, Colo., and Gladstone N.M., providing additional load-serving capabilities and increased reliability for Tri-State member cooperatives in both states. The line also promises growth opportunities in the region for oil recovery operations, in addition to new businesses, homes and irrigators.

Southwestern Electric Cooperative, based in Clayton, N.M., is a good example. Construction of a 600-inmate private prison in Union County, just east of Clayton, will bring more than 200 jobs to the area when it is completed in June 2008. Without the new transmission line, the electric co-op wouldn't have been able to deliver the one to two megawatts of energy needed to operate the facility.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., located south of Clayton and served by SWEC, is the largest load served by any of Tri-State's 44 member systems. Its Bravo Dome CO2 processing unit draws up to 52 MW of power, and the facility is looking to expand. Another oil company is looking to build a new CO2 processing facility in Harding County that will be served by Tri-State member Springer Electric Cooperative in Springer, N.M.

Tri-State faced numerous issues and obstacles during the planning stages for the CNMIP and key challenges occurred throughout the permitting and siting process. "The Colorado-New Mexico Intertie line was a worthy project that Tri-State was unwilling to give up on and now our member systems and their communities will benefit," said J.M. Shafer, Tri-State's executive vice president and general manager.

Online service helps utilities find solar match

The Solar Electric Power Association is preparing to unveil an online solar dating service just for utilities.  That's right—utilities will be able to find a solar match. O.k., so it's not really a dating service, but the general principle is the same.

Officially known as "Peer Match," SEPA members can find other utilities that have experience with challenges they are facing, such as:

1. Working with home builders to incorporate solar into new home developments
2. Structuring an RFP for utility-scale solar
3. Funding solar school programs
4. Determining criteria to set utility incentive levels
5. Simplifying the interconnection process for customers

SEPA expects to roll out "Peer Match" on its Web site in early March, as soon as enough utility members have completed solar profiles and agreed to participate. Don't worry – no pictures required!

To update their solar profiles in the Peer Match database, member utilities must:

1. Login to their SEPA Members' Only account
2. Click "Edit Your Account" in the top right hand corner
3. Complete the "About Your Company" section at the bottom
4. Opt in (or out) of Peer Match under "Participate in Peer Match"

SEPA will notify members as soon as the service goes live.

For more information about Peer Match, contact Mike Taylor at 202-857-0898, ext. 3.

ACORE publishes new master REC purchase, sale agreement

Agencies that are just getting their feet wet in the renewable resources market can thank the American Council on Renewable Energy for providing a template for trading renewable energy certificates.  

ACORE released the long-anticipated standard-form contract, the Renewable Energy Certificate Purchase and Sale Agreement in February. "This contract is intended as infrastructure, or a paved road, to help buyers and sellers transact, foster market mechanisms to promote renewable resource development and, perhaps most importantly, stave off potential balkanization of U.S. REC markets," said Jeremy Weinstein, co-chair of the working group that developed the master document. 

Individuals and companies can use the agreement to acquire the renewable attributes of renewable energy no matter where they are located on the national grid, without incurring transmission costs. Both the voluntary and compliance markets will be able to use the technology-neutral contract. "It is legally robust regardless of jurisdiction.  This is release 1.0, and we look forward to monitoring legal and market developments to keep the contract current," added Weinstein.

ACORE President Michael Eckhart stated, "This is an important step in creating a national system for REC trading, which will be essential to monetizing the environmental benefits of renewable energy and building those values into the long-term financing of the projects."

Wall Street Journal story looks at economics of solar power

Generous government incentives such as California's $3.2 billion solar initiative may be spurring American homeowners to install solar systems, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the jury is still out on whether or not residential PV makes economic sense.

More precisely, payback on a homeowner's investment depends on local electricity rates, net metering laws and state and utility incentives. The story in the Feb. 10 Journal drew on several sources in the utility and energy industry.

Incentive and rebate programs vary widely from state to state, the story noted. California and New Jersey were offered as examples where expensive electricity combined with state support to dramatically increase the number of residential installations over the last two years.

The payback for such systems ranged from 10 to 16 years, with incentives factored in. Net metering programs, another variable, could potentially improve those estimates, the Journal found. Jeff Osborne, an industry analyst interviewed for the story, said that a payback period in the "lower double digits or the high single digits" was needed to attract more investors.

Osborne co-authored a report on the economics of residential solar systems for CIBC World Markets. The report released in January by the wholesale banking arm of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, found that the returns on homeowners' investments in solar systems hovered around 6 percent.