Since the demise of the Truckee Donner Public Utility District’s (TDPUD) plan to purchase 50 years of coal-based electricity, the district has responded to the unprecedented public input and is looking at smarter, cost-effective energy sources.
A Valentine’s Day meeting offered everyone interested in the new direction (and not interested in an evening with their sweethearts) to hear what is the district is investigating. Some 12 audience members attended the untelevised meeting and heard from Doug Hunter, General Manager of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) and Randy Harris of Reno-based Energy Source Consulting, a paid TDPUD consultant. TDPUD is a member of UAMPS, whose proposed IPP3 coal plant and accompanying 50-year power purchase contract evoked vocal community opposition.
Mr. Harris used to work at Sierra Pacific Power (SPP), in whose ‘control area’ TDPUD is squarely situated, and he explained nuances of Truckee’s location relative to the electrical grid and available power sources.
SPP imports more power from outside its control area than it makes inside its control area. The company’s website explains that Sierra Pacific Power itself generates nearly half of the electricity provided to the company’s 330,000 electric customers. The rest is imported from the Pacific Northwest. Some is purchased from the small geothermal power plants around northern Nevada.
Of the electricity produced at company-owned power plants, about 60 percent is from the natural gas and oil-fired generating units at the Tracy and Fort Churchill facilities and the rest is from the coal-fired generating units at Valmy. Less than one percent comes from the company’s small hydroelectric plants along the Truckee River. Most imported electricity is secured through short and long-term contracts. A small amount of imported power is purchased daily on the spot market.
SPP could theoretically import power from PG&E in the west through two lines that run from Sacramento to Reno but almost never does because the cost is higher and there are bottleneck-type constraints to accessing this power, given the rapidly-expanding Roseville, Folsom and surrounding communities, said Harris. These lines are often at full capacity and could not send electricity to Truckee.
Harris said that there are some 30 megawatts of wind power coming online to Truckee’s north in Plumas Sierra Regional Electrical Coop’s (PSREC) Marble Mountain project. There is a real possibility of accessing two or three megawatts or more of this generation, said Harris, as it will be in SPP’s control area.
Harris is working with Steven Hollabaugh, TDPUD’s Assistant General Manager/Power Supply Engineer/Electric Utilities Manager, to access power from a geothermal plant coming online in Northern Nevada.
Doug Hunter of UAMPS explained his company’s available power options, several of which appear ‘greener’ than the proposed IPP3. Hunter first affirmed that yes, ‘conservation is your cheapest option.’ He then explained that as a member of UAMPS, TDPUD can join various ‘pools,’ wherein TDPUD buys or sells electricity at market rates, depending on the PUD’s need or excess supply. TDPUD has until October to decide.
Hunter explained that any type of power is available through the three different pools. ‘If you wanted to pay for wind,’ said Hunter, ‘you could buy all wind.’ The actual source of the electricity you get is hard to determine – it’s like drinking a glass of water from Lake Tahoe; you cannot know from which tributary it came. But TDPUD could elect to buy wind power exclusively and thus be supporting a wind farm, Hunter said.
Transmission-wise, Truckee is ‘on the moon,’ he said. But SPP does receive some electricity from UAMPS, which Truckee could access via these pools:
1) The ‘All In Pool’ – TDPUD buys cost-based power via 18-month contracts. Pool members with excess electricity can transfer it to someone needing electricity within the same hour. Hunter said 46 of 50 UAMPS members take part in this pool.
2) The ‘Power Exchange Pool’ – This web-based power exchange offers up-to-the-minute energy load histories and forecasts. Power Supply Engineer Hollabaugh or his designate can modify electricity acquisition based on electricity available within the pool.
3) The ‘Unplanned Pool’ – UAMPS manages TDPUD’s load as needed.
Mr. Hollabaugh expressed an earnest interest in the ‘All In Pool’ and urged the board to move toward joining it. All of the power available to the TDPUD through any UAMPS pool would have to meet the specifications of California’s SB 1368, which states that power procured outside the state must be as clean as power produced within California by a natural gas plant, at minimum. TDPUD attorney Steve Gross confirmed this.
Board Member Ron Hemig acknowledged Hollabaugh’s interest in the ‘All In Pool’ and suggested that the TDPUD Mission Statement be redefined first and that some benchmarks be established as well before joining any pool.
For information, contact Steven Hollabaugh, 582-3934.
Conservation is Your Cheapest Option
February 21 board meeting
Amid discussions on where to buy TDPUD power, the conservation approach is being called to the forefront, with many calling it the ‘cleanest and cheapest’ option. The reasoning is that energy you don’t use equals power you don’t have to buy, or ‘money saved is money earned.’
Conservation isn’t just an option, it’s required by law. Through the California’s ‘Energy Action Plan,’ adopted by the state’s energy agencies and endorsed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, conservation is given top priority. The Plan establishes a ‘loading order’ of preferred energy resources, placing energy efficiency as the state’s top priority, followed by renewable energy generation, then clean, fossil fuel, central-station generation.
The district’s Conservation Department Manager Scott Terrell and Robert Mowris, P.E., of Robert Mowris and Associates, an Olympic Valley-based consulting and energy-auditing firm, gave a presentation advocating conservation and how the district might promote it.
Mowris cited a study by his firm showing how 17 California Public Utilities implemented 63 residential, commercial, and industrial programs providing incentives for more than 280,000 energy efficiency measures, including weather-stripping, HVAC redesign and replacement, refrigerator replacement and recycling, LED traffic lights, and commercial and industrial lighting improvements. In all, the combined measures saved some 37,346 megawatt hours (at $50 per megawatt hour, this is a savings of more than $1.8 million).
Terrell presented the Conservation Power Plant (CPP) concept, used by several other state utilities. A utility district conservation power plant helps customers reduce their energy needs through efficiency measures, like switching out an inefficient water heater with an efficient one. The district pays for the initial cost of replacing the water heater, then customers pay back the district by paying (for example) half price on each of the kilowatt hours saved as a result of replacing the hot water heater. As additional evidence of conservation’s economic wisdom, Terrell also mentioned Australia’s recent pledge to completely phase out inefficient incandescent light bulbs and replacing them with compact fluorescent bulbs by 2009.
For information, contact Scott Terrell at 582-3831.
TDPUD Board meetings are at 7pm on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of each month. For information, 582-3909.
