— from Tom Owens —
OPALCO held a meeting (July 12) to examine future of energy for the Co-Op. Mr. Dauciunas is reported to have stated that since San Juan County gets 98% of its electricity from Canada (hydro, solar and wind) new electric cars here run on hydro. This would lead potential electric buyers to believe that their new electric car does not pollute.
Electric cars have some real benefits. OPALCO electricity is much cheaper than gasoline. New load is good for OPALCO if it does not push us over our BPA contract limits or require more investment. There a great tax credits when you buy a new electric car. But the cost of replacing the battery is certainly an interesting issue.
If we are to believe that electric cars in San Juan County do not pollute because they run on clean Canadian electricity, a couple of questions need to be answered.
Is there extra hydro power up there in Canada just sitting idle to serve OPALCO when a new electric car is added to the system?
Since hydro power is the least-cost resource on the electric system, why would it be sitting idle?
Would the Canadians pass up revenue that could be made by running all their hydro power resources at full available capacity and selling the product, rather than reserving some for OPALCO?
Is there really extra hydro power available to serve OPALCO’s new electric car load?
The electric generation resources in our interconnection (the western 1/3 of the US, BC and Alberta) include all types of fuel sources. Below is the percentage of total generation each resource type produced in 2015.
- Natural Gas 32%
- Coal 26%
- Hydro 23%
- Nuclear 7%
- Wind 5%
- Other Renewables 3%
- Solar 2%
- Other Thermal 2%
You can see that every type of resource was used to meeting electric demand in 2015. Trying to say that OPALCO gets only clean hydro just leaves other people to demand more of the other resources. At the end of the day, a new load anywhere on the system must be served from some resource that is not operating at full available capacity.
Simply put, the electric system operators will always run the lowest cost resource to its full available capacity before they start the next lowest cost resource and run it up to full load and so on. They do this to minimize their electric production cost. The highest cost resources will be run last and will have the extra capacity available to meet new loads (like your new electric car). The lowest cost resources are hydro, solar and wind. Nuclear is next. Natural gas follows. The highest cost resource is coal.
Coal powers your new electric vehicle, even here in the San Juans.
Broad statements about the nature of power on the Northwest grid can be misleading when specific sources and uses are considered. The power generated by various fuels (listed by Tom Owens as furnished by BPA) does not mix like different colored inks in a glass of clear water. That’s because (to continue the water analogy) electric power doesn’t just sit and mix, it flows as a current from generation to load much as water flows downstream for use. And OPALCO is as upsteam to BC Hydro as any US user can be. Coal power cannot “swim upstream” from, say, Chehalis to OPALCO. Coal power cannot flow backwards up to OPALCO; even though technically connected, it flows to other loads in the region. In other words, OPALCO receives hydropower whether it wants it or not.
OPALCO’s power sources not only don’t mix with coal power, so long as OPALCO stays within contracted limits, it is also within a fixed (from time to time) purchase contract between BPA and BC Hydro, BPA’s source of power used to fulfill its contract with OPALCO.
When decisions to purchase the cheapest power available are made, they are only made on top of long-term contracts for far more megawatts than San Juan County requires. This occurs only when long term contract demands are exceeded, such as when BPA has to go into the market because on one or more winter days San Juan County’s demand exceeds its contracted amount with BPA which BPA has covered (with other loads) in its contract with BC Hydro. This is as likely to be a regional problem, not just an OPALCO problem, but as long as OPALCO stays under its limit, it is protected even when this happens regionally. But if that event occurs,, BPA has to go into the market and buy power at which point Tom is right. Of course, that additional power could still be hydro, but it also could theoretically be anything; whatever is available at the lowest price, and the river of current can tilt such that other sources of power could conceivably flow our way. This is, however, exceedingly rare. It has happened- you all saw it in your bills over a year ago.
I agree with Tom in one respect: if we use hydropower, someone else can’t, but even this is true only up to a point. The sources and uses of power are dictated not only by existing long-term power contracts (which have a fixed long term price, rather than constantly changing market prices), they are also impacted by grid capacity. The grid may or may not have the capacity, for instance, to bring coal power to the San Juans, again, during a period of peak use throughout the region. Again, this is a constraint that has little or nothing to do with cost.
I agree with Vince Dauciunas’ assessment, but Tom and I have talked,and I agree with Tom wholeheartedly that nothing, NOTHING, is as effective as conservation and when electric power is used, that it be used wisely.
So here, we choose between hydropower and fossil fuel energy for automobiles and home heating (but not resistance heating). The economic argument for individuals, businesses and particularly OPALCO members is hands down. If you’re already paying OPALCO’s fixed charge, make it work for you and get your money’s worth. OPALCO can show graphs that show the savings.
Disclosure: I live off-grid, and so am not and cannot be an OPALCO member. I have no status within or for OPALCO whatsoever. I did attend the last annual meeting and was given lunch and a night-light in a small but colorful hot/cold food bag.
For those interested in learning more on ways to conserve energy – rebates, heat pumps, weatherization, and so forth, see: https://energysavings.opalco.com.
Building on Bill Appel’s thoughts above, OPALCO and co-op member energy consumption has been flat to down for several years now, and is projected to remain fairly flat for the foreseeable future. For a picture of what that looks like, see about 6:35 into the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjMysDZ53bU
A simple tip: OPALCO has free low-flow shower heads that help you not only save energy, but conserve water too. Stop by the Eastsound office and pick a couple up.
Note: Though I consult for OPALCO on conservation and renewable energy, any thoughts expressed here are my own.