Liberty Utilities to ax coal from power supply
By Kathryn Reed
Liberty Utilities is removing coal from its power portfolio.
On April 24 it filed a request with the California Public Utilities Commission to change its allocation from NV Energy. This came one week after it filed paperwork to add solar.
“… as of Jan. 1, 2016, the resource portfolio available to serve Liberty Utilities’ California customers will be exclusively from hydroelectric, natural gas, or geothermal facilities and, importantly, no longer include any coal-fired generation,” the document says.
Today, Liberty buys all of its power from NV Energy.
In 2011, Liberty bought NV Energy’s service area that includes about 49,000 customers on the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, in Truckee, Alpine County and other areas of Northern California. The service agreement expires at the end of the year.
Liberty and NV on April 21 reached an agreement on another contract that calls for the elimination of the coal plant. This will mean Liberty will be paying NV Energy about $2.34 million less per year. That contract is good through 2022. It is up to the California Public Utilities Commission to approve the service agreement.
“Given NV Energy’s pursuit of non-coal fired energy sources as well as Liberty’s, we believe we will be able to meet our customers’ future demands in an economic fashion without the dependence on coal-fired energy,” Rich Salgo, vice president of operations for Liberty, told Lake Tahoe News.
Liberty is also asking for the CPUC to approve the solar projects. It plans to buy and operate two solar plants that combined are 65 megawatt facilities. These facilities will more than replace the coal.
If the solar plants have a glitch, NV will supply the requisite amount of power to Liberty. The contract says Liberty could purchase up to 30.5 percent of its renewable energy from NV if the solar plants are not available.
With all the changes, Liberty expects to save $200,000 per year.
California law mandates that sellers of electricity must have 33 percent of their load be serviced with renewable energy by 2020. This will help Liberty reach that mandate. As of September 2014, the latest data available, the mix NV supplied Liberty was 52.44 percent natural gas, 21.7 percent renewable, 20 percent coal, 4.45 percent hydro, 1.4 percent nuclear and 0.01 percent oil.
“We will continue to pursue energy sources that will enable us to meet California’s increasing renewable energy requirements through 2020,” Salgo said.
NV in 2013 said it would begin eliminating coal immediately. However, the Valmy plant in Humboldt County, Nev., is expected to be online through 2025. That plant as of next year will not be supplying Liberty customers, assuming the CPUC approves the proposals.
Earlier this month the Tahoe Area Sierra Club had a talk focused on Liberty’s use of coal and the desire to have the power company change its practices.
“We are impressed with the groundswell of local support we have seen for this initiative to go coal free. Liberty was cooperative throughout our discussions and we congratulate them for coming to a good decision – good for Tahoe, Liberty and the warming planet,” Grace Anderson, lead volunteer for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Tahoe Basin, told Lake Tahoe News.
The national conservation organization had been putting pressure on the utility to discontinue using Valmy. Sharing the Sierra Club’s point-of-view were the local chapter as well as the Mother Lode and Toiyabe chapters, South Tahoe Citizens Climate Lobby, and Sierra Nevada Alliance.
WOW, This is great news. Good job Grace and Sierra Club.
Thanks for the good report on this, Kae! Bravo to Grace and everyone who helped Liberty make an excellent decision.
Not really sure if it was Sierra club that brought about the change, but rather the cost savings of 200k a year that swayed them. Though I am sure they will be happy to take the kudos. Maybe that 200k can be used to build the new transmission lines in the North Shore
Liberty Utilities offers a energy saving program to your house if you qualify by income. The improvements done to my house have made a big difference and it’s all done at no cost. Call Project GO to see if you can this done to your house. Call 1-800-655-7705.
I got the underneath of the house insulated and the duct work wrapped from the furnace. Now I’ve got storm windows in every room keeping out the draft and keeping the place quieter and warmer, weather stripping around the doors blocking the cold air from coming inside, a blanket around the water heater, compact fluorescent lights, low flow shower heads. A bunch of other things as well.
This has changed my house immensely and all at no cost! Your home ,if you qualify, will be warmer, and with a big savings on you utility bill. Please look into this, you’ll be glad you did! OLS
This has changed my house immensely and all at no cost!
OLS, I’m glad your house is more energy efficient. Really. It makes life more comfortable and more affordable. But it wasn’t free. SOMEBODY paid for it. And no, it wasn’t the utility company that paid for it. Other rate payers paid for it.
Dogula, your right the Project Go money and energy savings program is not entirely free. There is
$4.52 added to EVERYBODYS bill to pay for this.
So I say take use of this as we are already paying for it. A household of 1-2 people must have an income of $31,460 or less to qualify. The rate of income to qualify goes up according to how many people are living in the house.
My house is warmer and less drafty as well as quieter due to the new storm windows. My furnace does’nt come on as often or for as long as it used to which saves me on my heating bill.I’m using less eletricity and water thanks to Project Go.1-800-655-7705.
Don’t delay, call today! OLS
Dogula:
I agree with your remarks 100-percent. When I made all those upgrades to my house I had to pay for them myself. It was a substantial monetary outlay.
I signed up for the Go Project at the urging of my girlfriend. I’m retired and have no income. I have put a lot of money into my places out of pocket over the years…probably too much, looking back at it over time.
I have pride of ownership, so that’s just the way it is. Don’t want my places lookin’ like junk, yet I still want to save on the utility bills. Keepin’ these old homes up to snuff. New roofs, new plumbing,(Nixon plumbing was here yesterday and is highly recommended!) new energy efficient appliances. All of which came at my own expense, and out of my rapidly emptying pockets.
Liberty Utilities offer energy savings at a really low cost that is spread about thru all their customers.
Thank you for your time, Old Long Skiis
OLS, dont let others make you feel bad for your taking advantage of savings programs offered to those that qualify. Im glad that whatever the utility charges me can help others.
OLS, I wasn’t knocking you for taking advantage of an existing program. I just wanted to correct your statement that it was free.
Too many people think they can take stuff that’s offered for “free”, without actually realizing that, no, somebody has to pay for that stuff. Lately it seems that more and more people are getting “free” stuff, while I keep being asked to contribute at ever increasing rates.
Oh, but again, you say you’re retired and have no income? Really? NO income? No retirement from all your years with the Refuse company? I find that hard to believe. If it’s true, it’s a bummer trying to live on social security, I’m sure.
Again, not putting you down personally for the things you do. I think you’re a good person. But people need to get a grasp of real world economics here!
Starting with Dogula’s comment that SOMEBODY paid for it, I would note that decades ago one person (not employed in the utility industry) came up with calculations that resulted in a “net zero’ scenario, as he figured out that it was cheaper to re-do houses (w/ insulation, windows, appliances, etc.) as others report here, than for utilities to have to “save up” in the replacement of hydroelectric dams (billions of dollars, usually going past budget to build). . .
Besides, solar is already eroding their customer-bases. . .
In this report, they’re paying 2.34 million $ less per year (i.e., multiply that by the average length of a utility contract, sometimes 50 years). . .so they are not losing money on this. . .
NV Energy is now owned by Warren Buffett, who also owns the Burlington-Northern railroad (he bought outright the rest of what he didn’t already own a while back). . .Burlington Northern is, significantly, by far the largest coal-mover in the U.S. (@ at about 1,500 rail-cars-a-day), so this report is very significant in another way. . .
Algonquin (owning both the Liberty & Calpeco “ladder” subsidiaries) may have wanted also to avoid a long-drawn out PR fiasco which could easily affect their other, much larger holdings, as they are a multi-billion $ utility in Canada…
The Lake Tahoe service area is small potatoes for them, so this is a big win for us, the locals. . .either way, we win, as does our overall air quality. . .
Interesting stuff. Lots of good work by lots of well-meaning people.
Doesn’t negate the fact that that There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.
WE are still paying more, even though energy is costing them less? My first electric bill in California, in 1980 was $5.67. I’ve never forgotten it. Now? in summer it’s around $60, and in winter it’s about $100.
Nothing is free. If you aren’t paying for it, your neighbor probably is.
In addition to the benefits to an individual who takes advantage of this program there is an additional benefit to us all.
Widespread conservation efforts are likely to mean that new investments in power plants are not necessary. So instead of building a new plant we conserve energy, a good thing for everybody and the cost is likely less to all of us.