Room for a View > Special Report
Green Power Comes Home to New York
by Todd Paul; edited by Lorna Tychostup

It’s all over the news: Our addiction to fossil fuels is wrecking our health, altering the natural environ-ment, and sparking wars for control of diminishing, nonrenewable resources. With disturbing regularity we learn about another illness traced to air pollution, another glacier gone, another section of wilderness opened for drilling. As we fight a war in Afghanistan and prepare for another in Iraq, oil companies lay out plans for more pipelines.

“We have to get off the grid,” we moan, and then lapse into brooding about the expense and difficulty of mounting solar panels on the roof, erecting windmills in the yard, and cooking up corn-based fuel oil in basement vats.
But what if getting off the grid only cost $6 to $17 a month, and was as easy as writing a check?

Thanks to energy deregulation and advances in green technologies, New Yorkers can now elect to have their homes powered by locally produced wind-, hydro-, or biomass-generated electricity. You’ll still get your power off the state grid through your current electric service provider, but that grid will be using more green power and less fossil fuel. The more people sign up, the cleaner the grid—not to mention the air, water, and international politics—becomes.

How it Works
In 2000, new energy deregulation laws began uncoupling power producers and power service providers. For example, prior to deregulation, Central Hudson both produced and delivered power (a fact it touted in 1999 to reassure nervous customers, who feared a Y2K grid collapse). In 2001, Central Hudson concluded a sell-off of its power generation facilities and is now merely the conduit by which electricity reaches your house, if you live in Central Hudson’s service area. Likewise, Niagara Mohawk provides electricity to customers in its service area, but does not itself produce electricity.

By law, customers now have a choice of power producers from which to purchase electricity. That choice includes renewable or “green” power producers. No matter what power producer you choose, the electricity still arrives through the same power lines owned and operated by your service provider.

Beginning in September, Niagara Mohawk customers were given a choice of three green energy marketers from which to choose. Each offers a different mix of power from wind, hydroelectric, and biomass sources. Two of the three, Green Mountain Energy Company and Sterling Planet, are available only through Niagara Mohawk. The third, Community Energy, markets its products independently all over the state.

The NiMo Deal
Niagara Mohawk delivers electricity to 1.5 million customers in 37 counties. Its service area covers most of the state from Albany north, and the far-western area as well. However, its service area for electricity does reach down into the Hudson Valley to include Hudson, and even Elizaville and Nevis on the southern borders of Columbia County.

NiMo customers received a small brochure in their monthly bill explaining the available choices for green energy. By returning a postcard, NiMo customers are able to choose from a number of green energy plans. These include 50% wind/50% hydro, 15% wind/85% hydro, or 30% wind/20% hydro/50% biomass. NiMo customers may elect to purchase 50 , 75, or 100 percent of their monthly electricity usage from green sources.

There is a small premium, ranging from 1.3 to 1.5 cents extra per kilowatt hour (about $6-10 per month), to be paid for this green energy. According to NiMo spokesman Alberto Bianchetti, this premium passes through NiMo and goes directly to the green energy marketer. Noting that green energy is still slightly more expensive to produce than energy from fossil fuels, Bianchetti emphasizes that NiMo will not realize a profit or loss, no matter which choice customers make. “We are indifferent, financially, to whether customers enroll or not.”

John Holtz, director of public affairs for Green Mountain, says his company sells power direct to customers in seven other states, but is only licensed to sell through NiMo in New York. He hopes the NiMo deal will help introduce the concept of energy shopping to New Yorkers. “Shopping for energy is kind of a low-interest category for consumers,” he says. “Nobody’s shopped for electricity for 100 years.”

But once they find out about green power, New Yorkers are interested. In fact, surveys conducted by the New York Public Service Commission show that 74 percent of consumers consider environmental impact an important selection criteria when buying power. Unfortunately the willingness to pay a premium to get green energy decreased from 53 percent of consumers in 1998 to 44 percent in 1999.

Aside from the NiMo deal, New York residents can purchase wind power from Community Energy no matter where they live in the state (Green Mountain and Sterling Planet are available only through NiMo). For those outside NiMo’s service area, Community Energy offers unlimited wind energy in 100 kilowatt hour blocks. The cost is $2.50 per block, or 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour. A typical household may use 500 to 700 kilowatt hours monthly, so the premium to buy 100 percent wind power ranges from $12.50 to $17.50 per month, billed separately and in addition to your regular electric bill. Those who can afford to spend more may do so, adding more green power to the grid than they will actually use.

Cleaning a Dirty Mix
According to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, in 1998 about 30 percent of New York State’s power was generated by gas, and just under 22 percent by nuclear plants. Hydroelectric came in third, supplying just under 20 percent of the state’s needs, coal supplied 17 percent, and oil accounted for 10 percent. The remaining 1.3 percent was generated by biomass sources. There was no listing for solar or wind.

There are now two wind farms in the state, with potential for many more. New York has the potential to generate 10 percent of its electrical needs via windmills, and more if offshore winds farms are used; and every home that purchases wind power helps develop this resource by making wind farms economically viable.

It’s important to understand that when you buy green power, the electrons generated at the windmill are not necessarily the same electrons that power your lights. What you are doing is adding nonpolluting, renewable “clean” energy to the statewide grid. This, in turn, displaces the same amount of polluting, nonrenewable “dirty” energy. Think of it this way: The grid is like a bathtub, and the electricity is the water that fills the tub. Adding green energy to the grid is liking pouring clean, clear water into a tub that was previously full of dirty, oily water. The more clean water you add, the cleaner all the water becomes...and the less dirty water is needed to keep the tub full. Likewise, the more people that buy green energy, the cleaner the grid becomes and the less “dirty” energy is needed to keep the grid powered up. Theoretically, every green kilowatt you buy means one less dirty kilowatt will enter the grid. “By paying the premium for wind power you actually clean up the grid in New York State,” says Paul Copleman, manager of customer relations for Community Energy.

For now, green power comes at a premium because it’s still cheaper to produce energy by burning coal, gas, or oil. That’s due to an economy of scale. But as green energy develops, it will become cheaper too. The process has already started; according to Copleman, generating new wind energy cost 30 to 40 cents per kilowatt hour in 1980. That figure is now down to 5 to 7 cents. It makes sense; unlike coal and oil, wind and water do not have to be mined, transported, processed, or burned. They don’t pollute and there’s no cleanup. Wind, says Copleman, is the fastest-growing energy source in the world.

Community Energy gets its wind power from the Fenner Wind Project in Madison County, the largest such facility east of the Mississippi. Its hydro power comes from a small, low-impact generating station on the Wallkill River in Walden. Green Mountain won’t tell where or from whom it buys its green energy, “for competition purposes.” But all three companies sell to New York customers only power generated within New York state, and all are, to varying degrees, Green-e certified. Green-e is an independent industry standards certifier, sort of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for green power.

New York ranks in the top 20 states for wind, which may soon mean more windmill development upstate. In August, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard, Governor Pataki announced that $17 million in state funds will be earmarked to help develop windmill projects in areas fronting on Lake Erie, like Chautauqua and Erie Counties, as well as windy stretches of Steuben, Yates, and Otsego Counties. The Massachusetts-based UPC Wind Partners also wants to erect dozens of windmills along the Lake Ontario shore near SUNY Oswego, and may build the first offshore wind turbines in the nation. And Atlantic Renewable Energy Corporation plans to build as many as 68 wind turbines, generating up to 100 megawatts of power, on Tug Hill Plateau in Lewis County. If all these wind farms come online, their combined capacity could provide power to more than 300,000 homes.

Residential customers are just one aspect of the business of selling green power. Government and institutional buyers have proved to be good customers as well. Back in June 2001, Governor Pataki signed an executive order mandating that state agencies obtain 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2005, and 20 percent by 2010. This includes both state buildings and related agencies, such as SUNY and the MTA. In August of this year, the Binghamton Federal Building became the first federal building in the country to be entirely wind-powered; it has now been joined by the Utica Federal Building. And Copleman says his company sells wind power to 30 colleges and universities in Pennsylvania, including the University of Pennsylvania, which is the largest retail wind energy purchaser in the country at 20 million kilowatt hours per year. Community Energy’s two existing wind farms in Pennsylvania have been entirely sold out, and a third is now coming online.

In other states, according to John Holtz of Green Mountain, 20 percent of residential customers who have a choice choose green power. If 20 percent of New York residents follow suit, the impact could be huge.
For more information, check out the Public Service Commission Web site at www.dps.state.ny.us/energyguide.htm. The NYSERDA Web site has a list of green energy marketers, at www.nyserda.org/energyresources/ renewableprogram.html. And the US Department of Energy has a green power page at www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/dereg_ny.shtml#gcerts.
NiMo customers may contact Green Mountain by calling (888) 246-6730, or Sterling Planet at (877) 362-9982. Community Energy is available to all New York residents at (866) 946-3123. The three companies’ Web sites are at www.greenmountain.com, www.sterlingplanet.com, and www.newwind energy.com, respectively.