Rhode Island Electric Utility Allows Customers to Go Green

Rhode Island Electric Utility Allows Customers to Go Green -- for a Price

Apr 12 - Providence Journal

You no longer have to put a wind turbine in your backyard or solar panels on your roof to go green.

Customers of Narragansett Electric may now choose to pay extra for electricity that's made from wind power, solar rays, rushing water and other sources of renewable "green" energy.

Narragansett Electric is offering the GreenUp program in collaboration with the State Energy Office and four renewable energy companies.

The program allows a residential or small-business customer to indirectly buy electricity generated from renewable resources. It gives customers, for the first time, some say over how the electricity that comes over power lines is generated.

"If you feel strongly about it, and you want to pay the extra cost, it's there for you," said Michael F. Ryan, executive vice president of Narragansett Electric.

A customer can choose one of four renewable energy companies, which will put more green power on the regional power grid according to how much electricity that particular customer uses.

Customers can choose to have either 50 percent or 100 percent of their electricity needs come from green power.

There is a cost for buying green power. Those that join will pay 7 percent to 18.6 percent more for electricity each month. A typical customer using about 500 kilowatts of electricity would pay an extra $6 to $12.50 a month to participate.

The extra money goes mainly to the producers of green power. It still costs more to make that electricity than from power made from fossil fuels. The extra money will also provide an incentive for those producers to build more green generating facilities, said Erich Stephens, executive director of People's Power & Light, a Providence-based company among the four offering green power options.

Renewable electricity is becoming a more attractive alternative at a time when some fuel costs are at all-time high levels. Crude-oil futures traded at about $38 a barrel last month, pushing up gasoline and heating oil prices. And natural gas, which is used to generate much of the electricity used in New England, is also at historic highs. Proponents of green power also point out that investing in renewable energy will lessen the country's reliance on foreign fuel imports, while helping to cut down on pollution.

Here's how the GreenUp program works. Narragansett Electric is sending an enrollment card with its bills this month. Customers who want to participate can choose among six options offered by four different companies.

The choices differ by the type of green power source, as well as the mix of green power versus traditionally generated electricity.

For example, People's Power & Light offers two plans. A customer can choose to have either 50 percent or 100 percent of his electricity from green power sources.

Those who sign up won't notice anything different about their electricity service. It will still be delivered and billed by Narragansett Electric. A line item on the bill will list the extra charge to participate.

Customers aren't guaranteed that the electricity entering their homes will be green power. That's because electricity from all sources is dumped into the regional power grid that serves nearly all customers in New England.

There's no way to direct electrons from green power sources to a particular location on the grid.

A customer who signs up for the 50 percent plan will pay three-quarters of one cent per kilowatt hour beyond the usual charge of 10.753 cents per kilowatt hour. That represents a 7-percent premium.

People's Power and Light says that customers on that program will get 15 percent of their power from a wind turbine in Hull, Mass., and 34.5 percent from small, hydropower generators, mostly in Vermont. The remaining 50 percent will come from Narragansett Electric's suppliers, which use various sources to make electricity. The company also offers a 100-percent green power option that costs twice as much: 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour, which is about a 14-percent premium.

At the high end is a 100-percent green power offering from Community Energy Inc., of Wayne, Pa. That company charges an extra 2 cents per kilowatt hour, an 18-percent premium. Half of its electricity comes from wind, and the other half from small hydropower generators.

The other two companies are Conservation Services Group, of Westborough, Mass., and Sterling Planet, of Alpharetta, Ga.

Those who choose to join the GreenUp program do not have to sign a contract or pay any sign-up fee, according to Narragansett Electric. There also are no termination fees if a customer wants to opt out of the program later.

The GreenUp program is being promoted by the state's Energy Office, which administers a pool of money collected from electricity customers to support renewable energy.

The Energy Office hired SmartPower, a Hartford, Conn.-based green power marketing firm, to promote the program in Rhode Island. The company will be paid $175,000 for the campaign, which will include TV spots, radio commercials, direct mailings, and possibly newspaper and billboard ads, said Janice McClanaghan, chief of energy and community services for the energy office. That's about 5.5 percent of the office's annual budget.

The Energy Office also offers, through a separate program, rebates to individuals and businesses that install solar panels and wind turbines on their own property.

"Our objective is to try to offer all these incentives, to try to get the word out, and move all these things forward," McClanaghan said. "The more you get installed, the more the price will come down."

Narragansett Electric's sister company, Niagara Mohawk, began offering a similar GreenUp program in New York about a year ago. About 9,600 customers have signed up, out of about 1.5 million customers, according to Narragansett Electric. That's less than one percent (.6) of all customers.

The program has also been offered in Massachusetts, where 1,790 out of 1.2 million customers of Massachusetts Electric have signed up.

A study conducted by SmartPower, the company hired by Rhode Island to promote the GreenUp program, found that 76 percent said they would prefer renewable energy sources, even if it added $10 more to their bills each month.

-----

To see more of the Providence Journal, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.projo.com