Utilities Promote Green Energy
Nov 09 - In Business
After market surveys revealed that customers of electric utilities had high interest in clean, renewable energy from biomass, wind and solar sources hut low awareness of where and how to get it, utility companies got busy. Three Puget Sound, Washington electric companies - Puget Sound Energy, Snohomish County Public Utility District and Tacoma Power - launched green power media campaigns that used TV, internet, hill inserts and product offers. Campaign results show more than 4,300 new customers joined programs, representing a 272 percent increase in enrollment rate over the same period last year. Commented an official with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which pioneered the sale of Green Tags and helped to establish national standards for their certification and trading: "Participants in these voluntary program, pay a modest premium of $3 to $6 per month to support generation of new projects in the Pacific Northwest. The impact of just these 4,300 additional participants is equivalent to not driving cars nearly 21.4 million miles a year." The Bonneville Environmental Foundation - a nonprofit supplier of green energy resources to utilities - was also a partner in the recent campaign.