In 2000, the Seattle City Council directed Seattle City Light to meet 50 percent of future load growth with renewable energy and 50 percent through conservation. To meet these goals, City Light will need to integrate a projected 100 average MW of renewable energy generation before 2010 (an average MW is the firm power available from the generation and depends on the capacity factor; for example, 300 MW of nameplate wind capacity at 30 percent capacity factor equals 100 average megawatts).
To meet this goal, Seattle City Light issued a request for proposals for renewable electricity and received about 60 proposals. City Light chose a purchase contract with PacifiCorp Power Marketing for energy and environmental attributes associated with 175 MW of wind capacity, of which 100 MW will come from the 262 MW Stateline wind energy facility. The additional 75 MW of wind capacity is from an undetermined wind power source and will be added in 2004. Getting timely and low cost power were primary criterion in evaluating proposals and City Light selected the PacifiCorp contract because it provided a long-term fixed price for a guaranteed amount of power and was tailored to the utility's needs.
Seattle City Light had also considered participation in a multiple-owner wind project. But the utility ultimately declined participation because it did not compare favorably to available power contract; the ownership risks were too great for a relatively small amount of power. As part owner of the facility, the utility would need to pay for its share of the facility's costs regardless of the plant's power output; in the power contract City Light only paid for the power delivered. Seattle also had a greater ownership share than other owner utilities in this project and consequently carried more of the risk. City Light was also concerned that because more publicly-owned utilities were building wind plants, the availability of the Renewable Energy Production Incentive could not be counted on to bring down the costs of the power; the Production Tax Credit on the other hand, was guaranteed to the private developer of the Stateline project, FPL Energy.
Seattle City Light offers a green-pricing program, called the Voluntary Green Power Program; the voluntary contributions fund renewable energy resources in addition to those used to meet the City Council's goal and that the utility would not otherwise undertake. Forty percent of the program's contributions fund the installation of photovoltaic systems on public buildings in the Seattle area. The remaining 60 percent will go to specific renewable energy projects; these available funds total a few hundred thousand dollars a year to pay for about 250 average kilowatts of demand. Seattle has not selected the resources for this part of the program yet, partly because such small-scale demand does not provide adequate incentive for a developer to take on a project. Consequently, City Light has been actively trying to build interest among regional utilities for aggregating demand and funds. In the meantime, SCL is also considering the purchase of green tags, which are obtained from renewable resources produced in the Pacific Northwest.
Contact:
Marilynn Semro
Power Management
Seattle City Light
Telephone: 206-386-4539