Blue Ridge Electric Supports NC Green Power
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (June 3, 2002) — Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation is joining with other utilities across North Carolina to bring a renewable energy alternative to utility customers. On Friday, May 31, Blue Ridge Electric, along with other utilities under the oversight of the corporation developing the state’s green power program, filed its intent to support what is now known as “NC GreenPower”.
“Blue Ridge Electric is supporting this initiative because of interest expressed by some of our members, and because we believe it could also lead to long-term environmental benefits,” said Doug Johnson, chief executive officer of the electric cooperative serving over 64,000 members in northwest North Carolina. “Participation in the program is voluntary for utility customers,” Johnson added. “Yet it will give our cooperative and our members a way to show tangible support for renewable energy and the impact it could have for our mountains and foothills in northwest North Carolina.”
Advanced Energy, the non-profit corporation assigned by the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) to develop a state green power program, filed on Friday a set of proposals seeking approval to give electric customers the option to pay a small monthly premium to ensure that part of their electric power is generated from resources that are renewable and cleaner than traditional ones.
NC GreenPower would be designed to boost the production of "green power" - electric power generated from renewable sources of electricity, such as wind, solar energy, water and biomass - by creating a market and an incentive for companies to develop and sell it. Current market conditions make it too expensive for companies to profitably develop and sell such alternative sources of electricity.
"With this NC GreenPower plan, we have an opportunity to help meet our state's present and future energy needs in sustainable ways," said Larry Shirley, director of the State Energy Office and a member of the NC GreenPower advisory committee. The State
Energy Office supports and promotes energy efficiency programs and renewable energy technologies and has a key role in the development of NC GreenPower.
Under Advanced Energy's NC GreenPower plan, electric customers could elect to pay an extra $4 a month for blocks of electricity produced from renewable resources. The electric utilities, under "tariffs" (applications for green power rates) to be filed Friday, would agree to purchase that amount of electricity from N.C. companies that produce electricity from renewable resources.
The voluntary premiums collected from NC GreenPower consumers would be used to offset the higher costs of developing and producing such power. Advanced Energy would disburse the funds using a formula designed to promote facilities that produce power using new and cleaner technologies, such as solar, wind and various forms of biomass generation. It also would help keep some current producers - mostly hydroelectric energy producers - in business. The state currently has minimal sources of solar and wind power, two of the most desirable for long-term use. The NC GreenPower program would focus, in particular, on promoting the development and use of these renewable resources.
The Utilities Commission will receive public comments on the plan and tariffs before deciding whether to approve them. The NC GreenPower program could launch within six months of approval. If NC GreenPower is approved, North Carolina will become the first state in the nation to offer a statewide green pricing program, available to all electric consumers with participation from all of the state's electric utilities - Carolina Power & Light (CP&L), Duke Power, and Dominion North Carolina Power, as well as some ElectriCities and North Carolina electric cooperatives such as Blue Ridge Electric.
The proposal culminates more than a year of work by a broad spectrum of stakeholders invited by Advanced Energy to help craft a green power pricing plan. Last year, the Utilities Commission asked Advanced Energy to develop and implement such a program. Advanced Energy formed an advisory committee of environmentalists and other consumer advocates, electric utilities, green power suppliers, state regulatory staff, the State Energy Office, the State Attorney General's office, and energy scientists to develop the proposal. Committee members represented widely divergent views on how the state should proceed with the program. The final proposal represents what most agree would be an important first step toward achieving the goal of generating significant renewable energy for the state. Once the program is approved, the committee will help market it and continue advising on its implementation. Advanced Energy will form a separate nonprofit entity named NC GreenPower; it will be governed by a board of directors and will administer the program.
Beverly Finney, vice president of public and employee relations for Blue Ridge Electric, is serving on one of the committees working to craft and finalize NC GreenPower.
