| The City of Ashland purchases 1 aMW of Environmentally
Preferred Power from the Bonneville Environmental Foundation. This represents
about 5% of the total power used in Ashland and adds about $91,000/ year
to our wholesale power costs. Because these costs are added to operational
costs of the Electric Utility, all of the citizens and businesses of Ashland
pay for this power as a part of their electric rates. The City's Conservation
Commission has been working on ways to allow individual Ashland citizens
and business to purchase more green power on a voluntary basis. After exploring
a number of options, they recommended unanimously at their March 23 meeting,
the Ashland City Council enter into an Affiliated Marketing Agreement with
the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF) to market BEF Green Tags to
Ashland citizens and businesses. Under this agreement the city would direct
our customers to BEF for the direct purchase of these Green Tags.
BEF Green Tags (also called renewable energy certificates) are created
when renewable energy resources are substituted for traditional generation.
They represent the real savings in carbon dioxide and other pollutants that
occur when green power replaces burning fossil fuel. Since renewable energy
is still more expensive than buying traditional power, green tags are purchased
in addition to the electricity that is already been used. Buying Green Tags
has the same effect as buying green power because both replace fossil fuel
generators with clean renewable energy and both have exactly the same
environmental benefits. Purchasing BEF green tags supports the production
of renewable energy in the Western Region, which includes 15 western
states.
BEF has already entered into affiliated co-marketing agreements with
Trout Unlimited of California, Havurah Shalam in Portland, OR, Maine Interfaith
Power and Light and Oregon Interfaith Power and Light. Each Green Tag sold
by BEF costs $20/per year and is equivalent to 1,000kWh's of electricity.
The minimum purchase is 2 green tags or $40.00, which represent 2,000kWh's.
City of Ashland's customer purchases of Green Tags through BEF will be tracked
by BEF and BEF would reimburse the City $1.00/ Tag purchased, to be used
for renewable energy projects in Ashland.
Ashland's responsibility under the agreement, would be to communicate
to the Ashland Electric customers at least twice per year in the following
items:
(1) The co-marketing affiliation between Ashland and BEF
(2) The environmental value of a BEF Green Tag purchase
(3) The benefits to the City of Ashland of such a purchase
(4) The information necessary for a mailed or Web-Based Green Tag
purchase from BEF.
The agreement would be for 3 years but could be terminated by either
party by providing 90 days written notice.
BEF has further agreed to provide a payment of $2,500.00 to the City
upfront to help construct a solar electric project in Ashland, if it is used
for educational purchases. The Ashland High School's Wilderness Charter School
has already begun raising money for us a solar electric system on their Straw
Bale facility on Morse Street. Their funds, the City's Solar Electric Rebate,
and the BEF funds will provide $5,000 for a PV system on their building,
which can be used to teach Ashland School District students about Solar Energy.
The $1/ Green Tag sold to Ashland residents and businesses go toward the
$2,500.00 up front payment from BEF for this solar system.
Ashland would be the first utility to execute a marketing agreement
with BEF for sale of Green Tags. This solution provides a simple and inexpensive
way for us to allow customers to invest in green power without the administrative
effort that would be required if the City collected this money. This solution
allows the City to further our goals of using more green resources without
requiring a whole new set of administrative and logistic tasks on City
Staff. |
