August 21
Puget Sound Energy, Avangrid Reach PPA for 200 MW Wind Farm
Top consumer smart energy news hand-selected and brought to you by the Smart Energy Consumer Collaborative.
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Under the terms of a new power purchase agreement, Puget Sound Energy and Avangrid Renewables will build and make use of the 200 MW Golden Hills Wind Farm in Sherman County, Oregon, which should supply enough energy to power more than 60,000 homes annually. “We are pleased to partner with Avangrid Renewables to continue to build on our history of championing renewable energy in the Pacific Northwest,” David Mills, PSE’s Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, said. “This new wind project will enable us to continue to provide clean, reliable electric service to all of our customers.”
Enervee and Oracle are teaming to help consumers make more energy-efficient choices. Interpreting energy data from Oracle Utilities Opower Customer Engagement Platform, the Enervee SmartChoice AI interface will serve up a smarter, personalized online marketplace experience to millions of households. Consumers will get the tips they need to make purchase decisions that will save both energy and money over the long term.
California, long known for its year-round sunshine and its environmental leadership, has played an integral role in the growth of rooftop solar energy. In fact, in 1996, the legislature required utilities to reach five percent of their peak load with solar energy and to compensate retail rates for rooftop solar customers as an incentive to expand solar energy. Called Net Energy Metering, utilities throughout the state sought to meet the mandate.
The economic impact of COVID-19 has caused many households to examine their expenses including energy costs. With more consumers working from home and homebound, U.S. residential energy consumption increased by 12 percent in March and April. Faced with rising energy bills and added income pressures, many households are actively seeking proactive solutions to keep costs in check.
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Industry News
After a massive heat wave in California that led grid operator CAISO to order its first rolling blackouts since the 2001 energy crisis on Friday and Saturday, the state has thus far managed to avoid further forced outages. While temperatures dropped a bit on Monday, California still faces excessive heat warnings similar to those last week, driving air conditioning demand. CAISO has issued a “Flex Alert” asking Californians to conserve energy from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. through at least Wednesday.
El Paso Electric is launching an online store filled with energy efficiency items that customers can purchase, with an instant rebate taken off at the time of purchase. Through the innovative EP Electric Marketplace, customers can buy smart thermostats and enroll in the utilities Energy Wise Savings Program. The Energy Wise Savings Program is an energy efficiency program that created to help reduce energy load during the summer while offering customers a $25 incentive to enroll per smart thermostat.
If there was ever a time when running a utility was a straightforward, predictable business, those days are gone, as Maria Pope knows only too well. Since 2018, when Pope became CEO of Portland General Electric, Oregon’s largest utility, the U.S. has seen social and political upheaval on a scale few would have predicted. For utilities, the unrest comes on top of a technological sea change that was already underway.
The U.S. wind industry installed over 2,500 MW of new power capacity in the second quarter, despite the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The installations bring the total wind capacity in the United States to 110,000 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association’s Wind Powers America Second Quarter Report 2020. “American wind power is immensely proud of its 120,000 workers who have fought to bring additional clean, reliable electricity to American citizens, even in the initial stages of the global pandemic,” AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan said.
