— from Michel Vekved, San Juan Islands Conservation District —
“In San Juan County, we know we must transform how we generate and use energy. Our plan addresses these challenges and charts a course of action,” said San Juan County Councilman Bob Jarman.
Over the past few months a local group of engaged citizens, OPALCO staff, and county leaders developed the San Juan Islands Energy Plan in preparation for the competition. Priorities include community and youth education and engagement, increasing energy efficiency and reducing waste, and promoting renewable sources of energy.
“San Juan County leaders, as well as mayors and executives across the county, have told us that this Prize gives them the momentum to accelerate their energy efficiency efforts,” said Dr. Francis Slakey, Founder and Executive Director of the Georgetown University Energy Prize. Slakey continued, “these Semifinalist communities are leading the way for other small- and medium-size cities and counties to secure their energy efficient future.”
“OPALCO is excited to continue to partner with the community to develop and implement a holistic approach to addressing our county energy needs,” said Amy Saxe, OPALCO’s Manager of Energy Savings and Member Services. “Efficiency and conservation are critical components of our energy San Juan County joins three other Pacific Northwest communities in this friendly competition to improve energy efficiency for all. Bellevue, Bellingham, Walla Walla, and Anacortes were also selected to compete.
“The competition looks truly like America,” said Dr. Slakey. “Not only do these communities come from across the map, they represent the nation’s full political, social and economic diversity. Some are paying the highest prices for energy, some have the ambition to be carbon net-zero, but all communities share the goal of transforming America’s energy future.”
For more information about San Juan County’s efforts and ways you can get involved, please visit www.sanjuanislandscd.org or contact the San Juan Islands Conservation District at 360-378-6621. For more information about OPALCO’s energy efficiency programs, visit www.opalco.com/energy-savings or call 360-376-3571.
About Georgetown University Energy Prize
The $5 million Georgetown University Energy Prize challenges small- to medium-size towns, cities, and counties to rethink their energy use, and implement creative strategies to increase efficiency. To compete for the Prize, local governments, residents, utilities, and others will need to work together to demonstrate success in sustainably reducing energy consumption over a two-year period. For more information, visit www.guep.org.
Congratulations to OPALCO, the Conservation District and the hardworking volunteers putting time in at the Energy Roundtables the past year. Job well done.
OPALCO has extensive energy efficiency programs that have distributed well over a million dollars in rebates to help islanders improve the energy efficiency of homes and businesses. This will be a tough competition. If you think you might want to improve the insulation, air tightness, or heating in your home and business, checkout the OPALCO Energy Savings options here: https://www.opalco.com/energy-savings/
OPALCO has some of the lowest rates and cleanest energy in the nation. Here’s a picture showing how we compare: https://www.opalco.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/OPALCORatesandCarbonIntensity.jpg
What I’m concerned about is even though we are all doing a great job conserving electricity and using less, that means less REVENUE for OPALCO. And when it’s not as cold, we also use less electricity, which means less revenue for OPALCO.
Then we get a press release about OPALCO needing to raise rates because we are using less electricity (because of conservation AND it’s warmer) and they don’t have the revenue to do what they need to operate.
So what happens if OPALCO wins the $5M. Does that money go directly back to all the OPALCO members?
Chris,
San Juan County is the official competitor and OPALCO is a valuable partner. If San Juan County wins the big prize, it will allocate it in the best means possible to achieve the greatest benefit for our community. It would likely go to increasing energy efficiency and further developing local renewable energy, but these decisions will be made by the county, with input from our Islands Energy and Energy Leadership teams.
This is a highly competitive 2-year process, which is designed to provide benefits to each community throughout the competition. You, and any member of our community interested in transforming how we generate and use energy is welcome to participate in our meetings and our process. Please contact us at energy@sjislandscd.org if you are interested in getting involved. Or visit us at the upcoming Energy Fairs this spring!
Bingo. Chris is right – we have a real Catch 22 on our hands – as do most utilities today. However, energy efficiency, conservation and local distributed power are key pieces of our energy resource pool: part of our local, regional and national power supply solution going forward. As we work with our membership and community leaders to find our way in this new landscape, we remain committed to eliminating energy waste and reducing our carbon impact as a cooperative.
Chris,
Spot on…it’s called the utility death spiral.
– Take increased costs of supporting a distributed generation network…
– Mix in the revenue decline from said distributed generation…
– Now you have increased revenue requirements against a shrinking customer base…
– The subsequent mix of higher rates and competitive pressures will drive more customers to distributed generation…the spiral continues…
– Furthermore, the ensuing competitive and financial risks are likely to erode the utility’s credit quality…which will then lead to higher cost of capital…i.e. more pressure on customer revenues…
It’s a non-trivial challenge. OPALCO is somewhat unique, and I certainly don’t know internal specifics well enough….but we won’t be immune from these pressures…in fact, one could make an argument that our exposure may be quite significant given our infrastructure and other factors…
It would be interesting to know OPALCO’s position vis-a-vis the utility death spiral and forecast year-over-year revenue increases…