[SustainableNC] NC GreenPower program

[Bob Leker]

Below are excerpts from the text of a press release regarding the NC
GreenPower Program...........There is an on-going accreditation effort
(third party certification) that is designed to offer review standards
and assurances that the program is operating according to an established
program plan.  Currently there are discussions revolving around an
acceptable technology resource mix.


Advanced Energy and the state's electric utilities filed a set of
proposals
with the North Carolina Utilities Commission May 31, 2002 seeking
approval to give electric customers the
option to pay a small monthly premium to ensure that part of their
electric power is
generated from resources that are renewable and cleaner than traditional
ones, such as
coal. The NC GreenPower program would be designed to boost the
production of
"green power" - electric power generated from renewable sources of
electricity, such as
wind, solar energy, water and biomass - by creating a market and an
incentive for
companies to develop and sell it. Current market conditions make it too
expensive for
companies to profitably develop and sell such alternative sources of
electricity.

"With this NC GreenPower plan, we have an opportunity to help meet our
state's
present and future energy needs in sustainable ways," said Larry
Shirley, director of the
State Energy Office and a member of the NC GreenPower advisory
committee. The
State Energy Office supports and promotes energy efficiency programs and
renewable
energy technologies and has a key role in the development of NC
GreenPower.

Under Advanced Energy's NC GreenPower plan, electric customers
could elect to pay an extra $4 a month for blocks of electricity
produced from
renewable resources. The electric utilities, under special "tariffs"
(applications for green power
rates), would agree to purchase that amount of electricity from N.C.
companies that produce electricity from renewable resources.

The voluntary premiums collected from NC GreenPower consumers would be
used to
offset the higher costs of developing and producing such power. Advanced
Energy
would disburse the funds using a formula designed to promote facilities
that produce
power using new and cleaner technologies, such as solar, wind and
various forms of
biomass generation. It also would help keep some current producers -
mostly
hydroelectric energy producers - in business. The state currently has
minimal sources of
solar and wind power, two of the most desirable for long-term use. The
NC
GreenPower program would focus, in particular, on promoting the
development and use
of these renewable resources.

The Utilities Commission will receive public comments on the plan and
tariffs before
deciding whether to approve them. The NC GreenPower program could launch
within
six months of approval. If NC GreenPower is approved, North Carolina
will become
the first state in the nation to offer a statewide green pricing
program, available to all
electric consumers with participation from all of the state's electric
utilities - Carolina
Power & Light (CP&L), Duke Power, and Dominion North Carolina Power.
Some
ElectriCities and North Carolina electric cooperatives will also
participate.

The proposal culminates more than a year of work by a broad spectrum of
stakeholders
invited by Advanced Energy to help craft a green power pricing plan.
Last year, the
Utilities Commission asked Advanced Energy to develop and implement such
a
program. Advanced Energy formed an advisory committee of
environmentalists and
other consumer advocates, electric utilities, green power suppliers,
state regulatory staff,
the State Energy Office, the State Attorney General's office, and energy
scientists to
develop the proposal. Committee members represented widely divergent
views on how
the state should proceed with the program. The final proposal represents
what most
agree would be an important first step toward achieving the goal of
generating significant
renewable energy for the state. Once the program is approved, the
committee will help
market it and continue advising on its implementation. Advanced Energy
will form a
separate nonprofit entity named NC GreenPower; it will be governed by a
board of
directors and will administer the program.


For additional information on NC GreenPower visit the following website.

http://www.advancedenergy.org/greenpower/index.html

For additional national perspectives about green power programs visit
http://www.eren.doe.gov/greenpower/home.shtml
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