Green pricing offers power options
By Lauren Heaton
Yellow Springs residents will soon have the opportunity to ensure that
the cost of their share of household energy use goes to supporting renewable
power sources like the sun, wind, waterways and landfill gas. Village
Council on Monday, May 19, agreed to initiate a new “green pricing”
program that will offer residents the option of paying for the renewable
energy production equivalent to their household power consumption. In
other words, by paying a little extra on their utility bill, residents
can support the production of green energy and reduce demand for fossil
fuels to supply the country’s power grid.
The green pricing program allows Yellow Springs utility consumers to
purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) equivalent to the amount of
kilowatt hours of electricity they consume each month. While all energy
consumers are using the mix of renewable and non-renewable energy available
on the power grid at any given moment, green pricing participants will
be paying only for the renewable sources. According to Julia Blankenship,
who directs the AMP-Ohio program that will administer green pricing
for Yellow Springs, green pricing participants are thereby investing
only in renewable energy.
“Essentially, what you’re doing is purchasing the environmental
benefits of that green product and recycling the dollars into green
energy projects, which theoretically reduces the cost of producing that
energy,” Blankenship said.
RECs for green energy are a little more expensive than conventional
power from coal, nuclear and other non-renewable sources, according
to Chad Runyon, a member of the Village Environmental Commission, which
is promoting the green pricing program. The average household consumes
750 to 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per month, according to Blankenship,
which results in a utility bill of $60 to $75, according to Village
utility rates. With an additional 1.5 cents per kilowatt-hour for AMP-Ohio’s
green energy, which adds an additional $11.25 to $15, green pricing
would cost a household using 750 to 1,000 kWh/month a total between
$71.25 to $85.
AMP-Ohio sells all of its RECs through Nature’s Energy program
run by Green Mountain Energy, a Texas-based power provider, Blankenship
said. Every REC the cooperative municipal energy provider sells represents
one megawatt hour of electricity that was generated by an approved renewable
energy resource. Currently AMP-Ohio owns several renewable projects
including Belleville hydroelectric, which produces 250,000 megawatt
hours of power per year; several landfill gas projects which produce
about 80,000 MWh a year; and the Bowling Green wind project which generates
14,000 MWh/year, AMP spokesman Kent Carson said last week. The Village
currently participates in both the hydro and the landfill gas projects.
Each REC AMP-Ohio sells gets invested back into these wind, hydro and
landfill gas projects as well as others currently being investigated
and built to produce renewable energy in Ohio, Carson said.
“RECs lower the cost of renewable energy projects, which can be
reinvested into more projects,” Blankenship said. “And it’s
putting a value on the environmental benefits of creating green energy.”
For current AMP members, there isn’t as much demand for green
energy as there is renewable energy generated. For instance, the combined
output of all of AMP’s renewable energy projects yield a lot more
green energy (about 344,000 MWh a year) than the approximately 1,100
consumers signed up for green pricing demand, Carson said.
In order to begin the green pricing program, Yellow Springs Village
Council agreed last year that the village needed a minimum participation
level of 10 percent of Village utility consumers. But with 140 households
already signed up, Council asked Village Manager Eric Swansen to take
the steps necessary to initiate the program.
With 10 percent participation, the village would have a higher rate
of commitment than even the Bowling Green community with four percent
committed to buying green energy, Blankenship said. Yet even if everyone
in Yellow Springs signed up, the Village, which sold 34.5 million kilowatt
hours (or 34,500 megawatt hours) of electricity to residents in 2006,
would use only a small fraction of the green power available. Currently,
AMP sells its excess RECs on the market. That means, said Carson, that
“there’s room to grow” more green energy buyers.
The Environment Commission has been working to promote green pricing
because members such as Chad Runyon feel it is a good opportunity to
invest in future renewables.
“I like it because it gives me peace of mind, and even though
I know we’re still using coal, it forces AMP-Ohio to bring in
more renewables,” Runyon said. “It’s just like supporting
any product where some of the money goes to research and development
of that product.”
Last month’s Village utility bill included a brief explanation
of the green pricing program and a way to sign up for it. The program
is optional, and administered on an individual basis, so that only customers
who wish to participate will pay the extra cost, while those who do
not sign up can continue at conventional Village utility rates. And
because most of the details of the program are administered through
AMP-Ohio, once the program gets going, additional work for the Village
will be minimal, Blankenship said.
Green pricing is also available for commercial customers, whose power
would be purchased in one-megawatt blocks at $15 per megawatt of power,
with a variation on that formula for smaller businesses, Blankenship
said.
Green pricing programs which allow RECs to be sold on the market support
and in some cases are a key justification for renewable energy projects.
“If there was no REC market, there would be a lot fewer renewable
energy projects in Ohio,” she said. “A key aspect of making
these projects possible are in their future investments.”
To sign up for green pricing in Yellow Springs, contact the Village
utility office at 767-7202.
Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com