May 7, 2008—The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released its annual ranking of leading utility green power programs. Under these voluntary programs offered by more than 800 utilities, consumers can choose to help support additional electricity production from renewable resources such as solar and wind. Total utility green power sales exceeded 4.5 billion kWh in 2007, about a 20% increase over 2006, says NREL.
Using information provided by utilities, NREL develops “Top 10” rankings of utility programs in the following categories: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, customer participation rate, green power sales as a percentage of total utility retail electricity sales, and the lowest price premium charged for a green power program using new renewable resources.
Ranked by renewable energy sales, the green power program of Austin (TX) Energy remains first in the nation (at 577,636,840 kWh) for the sixth year, followed by Portland General Electric (553,677,903), PacifiCorp (383,618,885), Florida Power & Light (373,596,000), and Xcel Energy (326,553,866).
Austin Energy also comes in second for its percentage of total electricity sales that are green power sales, at 5%, beat out only by the Edmond Electric, the municipal utility for Edmond, OK, which is at 5.7%. The City of Palo Alto Utilities ranks third at 4.6%, Portland General Electric is 4th at 2.9%, and Silicon Valley Power at 2.8%.
Xcel Energy has the greatest number of participants in its program at 75,534. Helped by its huge size, Xcel Energy has led that category for the past five years. It is followed by Portland General Electric at 61,543, PacifiCorp at 60,539, Sacramento Municipal Utility District at 43,543, and PECO at 38,548.
Ranked by customer participation rates, the top utilities are City of Palo Alto (CA) Utilities at 20.4% participation, Lenox (IA) Municipal Utilities at 14.3%, Silicon Valley Power (CA) at 8.7%, Portland (OR) General Electric at 8.5%, and Sacramento (CA) Municipal Utility District at 7.4%.
Ranked by price premiumcharged for new, customer-driven renewable power, Edmond Electric came in first with the lowest premium of 0.09/kWh, followed by OG&E Electric Services (0.10), Austin Energy (0.16), Indianapolis Power and Light (0.20), and Park Electric Cooperative (0.22).
For the complete Top 10 rankings in all categories, see the tables on the Greenpower Network Web site.
