https://www.pv-magazine.com/2019/08/22/us-electricity-retailers-are-ditching-fossil-fuels/
US electricity retailers are ditching fossil fuels
Three different retail electricity providers in the United States have
announced new programs to provide customers the option to buy 100%
renewably sourced electricity, with one of the three even coming at no
additional cost.
August 22, 2019 pv magazine
Momentary synchronicity struck the U.S. energy world this week, as three
different retail electric providers in three very different parts of the
country have announced plans or programs for their customers to have
100% of their electricity needs sourced from renewable energy.
The three progressive providers are Portland General Electric in Oregon,
Virginia’s Appalachian Power, and Gexa Energy out of Houston, Texas. And
while the offerings are all for 100% renewable electricity, the three
are not made the same and have some pretty different circumstances.
For starters, Appalachian Power’s Wind Water & Sunlight service will
supply 100% renewable power to any customer in Virginia using renewable
resources from the company’s generation portfolio. The innovation will
come with a modest $.00425/kWh bull premium added to all participating
customers. For the average 1,000 kWh/per month customer, this represents
a $4.25 increase in their bill, up from the original $110.79 prior to
the Wind Water & Sunlight service. This premium represents a cost of
11.5 cents/kWh, which is actually lower than the national average of
13.16 cents/kWh – and that national average isn’t factoring in 100%
renewable generation.
Portland General Electric’s plan is dubbed the “Green Future Impact” and
will be available only to large commercial and industrial customers. The
company has also said that “pricing reflects the actual cost of
producing and delivering the energy from a specific facility,” meaning
that it will likely cost customers a bit more than their current power
portfolio. Since the program opened, more than 160 MW of generation have
been applied for, with Portland General Electric anticipating total
procurement for this program to reach the 300 MW benchmark.
On the flip side of Portland General Electric’s offering, Gexa Energy’s
program will apply to all future residential customers. Gexa’s
initiative will also be the only one of the three to feature the
provided service at no additional cost to customers.
The seeds of revolution are planted and grown in the smallest outlets of
support. These outlets have the least trouble changing to conform to the
new norm and can end up influencing bigger, more powerful entities to
join the cause through sheer growing numbers. The same is true of the
energy revolution. We aren’t going to wake up any day in the near future
to find out that Duke Energy Progress or Florida Power and Light or
Arizona Public Service have made the switch to 100% renewable energy.
It doesn’t happen like that – these things take time. And one of the
reasons these things take time is that smaller-scale adoption has to
take off to convince the larger utilities that 100% renewable generation
is a societal want and that there’s a customer base demanding this that
can’t be ignored.
By Tim Sylvia
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