Energy plan will save money, cut emissions

Cost-effective energy efficiency — energy conservation — is the best and lowest-cost way to meet our future demand for electricity. In February, the Northwest Power and Conservation Council completed the latest revision of its Northwest Power Plan, which calls for meeting nearly 85 percent of the region’s new demand for power over the next 20 years with energy efficiency.

Because the plan is implemented by the Bonneville Power Administration, and because Clark Public Utilities relies on Bonneville for about two-thirds of its electricity supply, Clark County consumers will have the opportunity to continue participating in programs to save energy and will save themselves money by doing so.

As demand for power grows, investments in energy-efficient equipment and products will cost less than half as much as buying electricity from new power plants, saving consumers millions of dollars regionwide. If all the energy efficiency in the plan is achieved, the council calculates that consumer electricity bills actually will go down slightly by 2030 because less power will be consumed, even as rates charged by utilities go up to pay for the efficiency measures and power from new and existing generators. Additionally, investments in energy efficiency will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the region’s power supply and create as many as 47,000 new jobs in the Northwest.

Energy efficiency is not a new resource in the Northwest. Since the early 1980s, when the council issued its first power plan (the council revises the plan every five years), the region has saved an amount of power equal to the electricity use of four cities the size of Seattle.

Clark Public Utilities customers are doing their part, improving energy efficiency in 2009 alone by an amount equal to the electricity use of 2,500 Clark County homes. This was achieved through home weatherization, new and retrofitted residential lighting, new and replacement residential heat pumps, and energy-efficient home appliances. Commercial and industrial buildings also contributed through efficiencies in lighting and customized, building-specific projects. Some of the savings also came from Clark’s participation in the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance, a Portland-based nonprofit that works to accelerate the market adoption of energy-efficient products, technologies, and practices in homes, businesses and industries.

Looking for savings

In the future, large savings are expected to come from some of the same sources as well as from more efficient televisions, windows, clothes washers, water heaters, and industrial energy use. There also is a significant potential available from improving the efficiency of utility distribution systems with better voltage management, higher-efficiency transformers, and other utility-level improvements. There even are significant savings available from more-efficient dairy farm equipment.

In addition to energy efficiency, the council’s plan calls for more renewable energy — primarily wind power — and a small number of new natural gas-fired power plants. Importantly, natural gas-fired plants emit only a third as much carbon dioxide as conventional coal-fired plants. As the plan is implemented, our region will be able to reduce its reliance on existing coal-fired plants, helping the power system achieve its share of Washington state’s carbon-reduction goals.

By creating jobs, reducing carbon emissions, and holding down our energy costs, the council’s plan, and its implementation by Bonneville and utilities like Clark Public Utilities, provides a model of effective energy policy for the Northwest and the rest of the country.

Dick Wallace of Olympia, 2010 vice chair of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, was appointed to the council by Gov. Chris Gregoire in 2008. Previously Wallace was an executive at the Washington Department of Ecology. Tom Karier of Spokane was appointed to the council by Gov. Gary Locke in 1998. Previously Karier was a professor of economics at Eastern Washington University. He was the council chair in 2006 and 2007.