Your PUD Message from the Commissioners

Expanding renewable energy options requires a balanced approach

By Carnan Bergren, Commissioner

8/1/2011

We are blessed in Chelan County to have an abundant supply of clean, renewable energy – the hydropower generated at the PUD’s three dams.

With such a good supply, I am often asked why the PUD is involved with other renewable sources including wind and solar. I wish the answer were simpler.

Part of the answer lies in the unintended consequences of laws requiring the building of new renewable energy sources before they were needed to meet demand.

These requirements of state law, plus federal subsidies, have led to a huge increase in the number of wind turbines in the Northwest, resulting in impacts on the wholesale power market and on Columbia River operations.

What happens in the wholesale power market is important to Chelan PUD because there is a gap between what it costs to make and deliver our power and the low rates we charge our customers. Chelan PUD uses revenue from surplus power sales in the wholesale market to cover that gap, one of the benefits of having extra power to sell in the open market.

With this year’s unusually deep snowpack and large runoff, we occasionally saw wholesale power prices drop into negative territory as spring storms kept wind turbines spinning while melting snow sent high flows into rivers and past dam turbines.

There were also concerns about fish. With high flows, the amount of water going through spill gates was closely monitored to keep formation of gas bubbles in check. The bubbles can give young salmon and steelhead a fatal case of the bends as they head downstream on their way to the ocean.

To limit spill and protect fish, even more water was sent through dam turbines, generating even more power even as prices dropped. We saw the regional Bonneville Power Administration take the unusual and contentious step of ordering wind generators to shut down so there was a use for more hydropower without spilling at the dams and hurting more fish.

There’s also the question of providing backup power  when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. Given the ability of hydropower generators to increase or decrease generation on short notice, it is a good source of carbon-free energy for “firming” wind and solar supplies. 

On another front, the state Energy Independence Act (also known as Initiative 937) requires that 15 percent of our energy supply by 2020 come from new renewable sources such as wind and solar. We must add those sources even though we don’t need them to serve our local customers and even though the cost is higher than the hydropower we generate locally.

The PUD is meeting this requirement in part with our share of power generated by the Nine Canyon Wind Project near Tri-Cities, run by Energy Northwest. The PUD can also count the additional energy we are receiving from improving the efficiency of our own dam turbines and generators – a source that is recognized as “renewable” by the Energy Independence Act.   If Gov. Chris Gregoire has her way, as proposed to the Legislature recently, all of hydropower may one day be counted as renewable – as it should be. But we are not there yet.

With all these challenges, Chelan PUD is still committed to providing sustainable and affordable energy for our customers by working to find the most cost-effective solutions.

Our SNAP (Sustainable Natural Alternative Power) program encourages local generation of small-scale wind and solar power. We are also working   with legislators, agencies, other utilities and environmental groups to maintain a balanced approach that makes sense for our customer-owners and supports our economy and quality of life.

Finding this balance isn’t easy, and it can be expensive. Alternative forms of renewable energy such as wind and solar come with a cost - typically much higher than our own hydropower. This is a simple overview of just a few of aspects of the challenges facing us on renewable energy. The debate is sure to continue.