Shades of Green Update

1
Shades of Green Update

• J.P. Blackford
• The George Washington University
• School of Engineering and Applied Science
• DEED Intern

2
Shades of Green Update Agenda

• Whats New
• Where we are in 2005 the Update
• Proposed New Additions
• Where do we go from here??

3
Shades of Green Whats New?

• Biggest change from 2001 Shades
• Non-Utility Generators

4
Shades of Green The Update

• Public Power still leads the way with hydro and
  has the second lowest coal generation
• Non-Utility Generators have very high Natural Gas
  generation

5
Renewable Capcity

• Public Powers position remained very strong, but
  showed no significant growth (but, neither did
  IOUs or Co-Ops).
• Vast majority of renewables are Hydro

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A bit more on Renewables

• We lead the way with Hydro
• We fall behind on non-hydro renewables to the
  Non-Utility generators

7
Fossil Fuel Mix -- Capacity

• PP uses less coal than all but Non-Utility
• PP uses more oil than the others
• But, the fuel mix isnt really all that
  significant

8
Fossil Fuel Mix -- Generation

• PP has significant non-utilized gas capacity
• Peaking units are gas-fired
• This is a snap-shot of one year
• PP coal generation has declined, IOUs increased,
  Co-Ops remained steady

9
Operating Coal Capacity Age

• Obviously, plants have gotten older, so the
  graphs show that change

10
Emissions Sulfur Dioxide

• PP retains its rank as the lowest Sulfur Dioxide
  emissions

11
Emissions Nitrogen Oxides

• PP is still lower than IOUs and Co-Ops, but, is
  higher than Non-Utility Generators

12
Emissions Carbon DioxideBased on Capacity

• Weve improved!
• But, the Non-Utility generators emissions are
  lower than ours.

13
Emissions Carbon DioxideBased on Generation

• The trend between PP, IOUs and Co-Ops remains the
  same, but, Non-Utilities are slightly better than
  PP

14
Hydroelectric Capacity

• PP still has approximately 4 times the hydro
  capacity as IOUs

15
Non-Hydro Renewables

• Non-Utility Generators have significantly more
  non-hydro renewables.
• PP has increased its non-hydro capacity (by about
  20), while IOU capacity decreased and co-ops
  remained nearly the same

16
DSM

• Same general trend, though PP spending did
  decrease.

17
Landfill Gas

• Currently
• 370 LFGE projects already exist and another 200
  are under development
• In 2003, these projects removed over 17.7 MMTCE
  of methane annually, which equates to removing
  emissions equivalent to 14.3 million cars,
  planting 19.3 million acres of forest, or
  preventing the use of 152 million barrels of oil.

• Previously
• 317 LFGE projects existed and another 54 are
  under construction

Landfill gas may prove to be more significant
since new EPA data shows that the heat trapping
potential of methane is 23 times as strong as
carbon dioxide this is up from 21.
18
Whats New??
19
Zero Emissions Capacity

• This counts Hydro and Nuclear.
• PP clearly leads the way in these generating
  technologies that have no emissions

20
Mercury

• Graph considers Fossil Fuel generation only.
• PP has significantly lower mercury emissions than
  the other generators.

21
Green Pricing

• PP has significantly more utilities offering
  green pricing programs to their customers

22
Green Pricing Continued

• PP average green pricing premium is less than
  IOUs or Co-Ops.
• This is misleading, though, due to IOU solar
  programs which have significantly higher
  premiums.
• Looking at the median, the premiums are similar

23
Renewable Portfolio Standards

• Disclaimers
• Hydro may or may not be counted in all of the
  state RPS standards
• Some figures are misleading due to limited PP
  presence in some states
• Credit may or may not be given for existing
  renewables in the proposed RPS

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Why are we Green?

• Things we really cant control
• Location
• Weve got a lot of Hydro capacity due to where
  were generating our power (Pacific NW, for
  instance)
• Age
• We got into the generation side later, so our
  plants are newer, and therefore cleaner

Still
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Conclusions

• Were still greener than the IOUs and Co-Ops
• Thats great, but, it poses a bigger question

26
Where do we go from here?

• How do we want to proceed on the Shades of Green
  Update
• Case Studies
• Small Member Contributions

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The spin on the Update

• Were still Green, but look at what were doing
  to become even greener
• Case Studies (more on that soon)
• Policy Pressures that PP will be facing
• GHG intensity
• RPS
• Others?
• Opportunities for PP
• Landfill Gas
• Anything Else?

28
Case Studies

• We want to show that while PP is green, were
  trying to be greener
• Tree Power
• Holland (MI) mercury thermometer and industrial
  switch program
• Others??
• These are likely programs that were not getting
  credit for elsewhere!

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Small Member Contributions

• How can we collect what our smaller (lt25 MWh)
  generators are doing?
• Most are exempt from reporting
• Voluntary reporting may be too burdensome for
  smaller generators

30
Anything else?

• Other items to include in the update to Shades of
  Green
• Questions?
• Comments / Suggestions?
• J.P. Blackford
• jpblackford_at_appanet.org
• 202-467-2985