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Region’s largest electric utilities score energy conservation gains in 2005
February 21, 2006
The 15 largest utilities in the Northwest collectively reduced demand for electricity by 108 average megawatts in 2005, enough power for about 63,000 homes, the Council reported today. And because energy conservation is less expensive than building new power plants or buying electricity on the volatile wholesale power market, the utilities, and as a result their customers, are saving money.
“This is an impressive achievement,” said Council Chair Tom Karier of Spokane. “These utilities, which represent about 80 percent of the regional demand for electricity, not only met the Council’s target for 2005 but did so at a cost that was about $30 million less than expected.”
The Council’s Fifth Northwest Power Plan, which went into effect in December 2004, calls for meeting future demand for power with a mixture of energy conservation and new power plants, primarily wind power. The plan calls for achieving 700 average megawatts of new energy conservation between 2005 and 2009. One average megawatt is a megawatt — 1,000 kilowatts — delivered continuously for a period of one year. One average megawatt will power about 585 Northwest homes for a year.
To be on track for 2009, the 15 utilities collectively needed to achieve 105 average megawatts in 2005. They achieved a total of 108 average megawatts, according to a preliminary survey conducted by the Council. The Council’s goal for all 126 electric utilities in the Northwest was 130 average megawatts in 2005. The Council didn’t contact all of them, and so it isn’t clear whether the regional goal was met, but most of the region’s electricity customers are seeing benefits from the 2005 achievement, Karier said.
However, some utilities did better than others, according to the survey.
“It’s clear from the survey that not all utilities are pursuing conservation on pace with the Council’s plan,” Karier said. “For the largest utilities, a few successful conservation programs compensated for other utilities that were well below their target levels.”
The impressive conservation gains in 2005 were in several areas, particularly in sales of compact fluorescent light bulbs. More than 7 million bulbs were sold in the region in 2005. With those sales, the Northwest now has about 16 percent of all compact fluorescent bulbs installed nationwide. In addition, there was progress in improving the energy efficiency of appliances and in instituting new conservation programs for commercial lighting and for industrial equipment. At the same time, some areas need improvement, the survey found. There has been no activity in developing heat pump water heaters, a technology with promise for significant future savings. Less conservation has been achieved in new commercial buildings than the Council anticipated, and despite the success of some efficiency programs for new appliances, funding for “market transformation” activities is limited.
The fifteen utilities surveyed by the Council include both investor-owned and public utilities. The investor-owned utilities include PacifiCorp, Puget Sound Energy, Portland General Electric, Idaho Power Company, Avista Corporation and Northwestern Energy. The public utilities include Seattle City Light, Snohomish County Public Utility District, Tacoma Power, Cowlitz Public Utility District, Clark Public Utilities, Eugene Water and Electric Board, Grant County Public Utility District, Benton County Public Utility District, and Flathead Electric Cooperative.
The Council is an agency of the states of Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington and is directed by the Northwest Power Act of 1980 to prepare a program to protect, mitigate and enhance fish and wildlife of the Columbia River Basin affected by hydropower dams while also assuring the region an adequate, efficient, economical and reliable power supply.
Related link: Presentation at March 2006 Council meeting (830k PDF)
Contact: John Harrison, Information Officer, 503-222-5161,