Press release: Council urges continued regionwide energy conservation challenge
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Press release: Council urges continued regionwide energy conservation challenge |
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January 16, 2002 Vancouver, Washington -- The Council is encouraging the region's electric utilities and large industries to continue working to lower the regional demand for electricity by building a "conservation power plant" over the next three years. Meeting today in Vancouver, Washington, the Council took this step in response to an analysis by the Council's power planning staff that identified 300 megawatts of energy conservation -- enough electricity for about 175,000 Northwest homes -- that could be installed for less than the cost of power from a new 300-megawatt generating plant fired by natural gas.
"The energy crisis of 2001 showed us how important it is to reduce our demand for power in the future," said Council Chairman Larry Cassidy. In the latter years of the 1990s, the region developed about half the amount of conservation that was cost-effective. The region then had to play "catch up" when supplies became tight and prices went out of control. The lesson is, "the more we reduce our demand for power, the more we insulate ourselves from the impacts of energy shortages and high prices," Cassidy said. The Council plans to work with the region's utilities and state regulatory commissions to track conservation achievements and report on them periodically. The Council's proposed 300-megawatt "conservation power plant" is a voluntary target only, not a requirement, and it is based on what's cost-effective in the region, Cassidy said. In its analysis, the Council divided the 300-megawatt target among the region's electric utilities and energy-intensive industries based on their proportionate share of the region's electricity load. Most of the conservation potential -- almost 60 percent -- is in the region's commercial businesses and industries, such as building insulation, lighting, electric motors and industrial processes that use large amounts of electricity. The savings would come primarily from the installation of more efficient electricity-using equipment. "Because most of the investment would be in businesses and industries, the conservation would contribute directly to making the economy of the Northwest more efficient and resistant to the risks of volatile wholesale power prices," Cassidy said. In other business Wednesday, Bob Lohn, regional director of the National Marine Fisheries Service, reiterated his support for the Council's subbasin planning, through which the Council is developing plans for fish and wildlife improvements in each of the 62 tributary river basins of the Columbia River. Lohn said the Fisheries Service plans to join with the Council in developing those plans over the next several years to implement protections for Endangered Species Act-listed fish in the Columbia River Basin. Contact: |
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