NES to test market for 'green' electricity

NES to test market
for 'green' electricity

By ANNE PAINE
Staff Writer

Nashville Electric Service customers can buy "green" power as early as next summer through a $7 million Tennessee Valley Authority test market program that taps into solar, wind and landfill methane gas energy.

NES is one of 10 TVA distributors that have stepped up to take part.

Residents will have to step up, too — volunteering to pay $2-$10 more a month if they want to support the offering.

If they do, TVA plans to expand the green program throughout its territory by the end of 2003.

ENVIRONMENT

"Our survey shows people are interested, but then you have to go the last step and see who's going to pay the bill," said Barbara Martocci, a TVA spokeswoman.

"The renewable energy resources are costlier than any other electric generation source out there."

The initial TVA program is modest in proportions — able to power an estimated 6,000 homes in its 8 million-customer region.

Because TVA is the largest power wholesaler in the nation, however, the high-profile venture is expected to spark interest in green power and bolster the market.

"We feel it's an important way to get renewable energy into the valley — transition away from coal and nuclear," said Stephen Smith, head of the Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition, a longtime TVA watchdog group. He's among those helping form and promote the program.

In Nashville, TVA proposes an 8,000-square-foot array of solar cells that convert sunlight into electricity — possibly at Cumberland Science Museum. Another eight locations across the region — in

uding school rooftops in
ibson, Tenn., and Newport,
enn.—are under considera-
on for similar arrays.
A site is sought, too, for
ind turbines. And negotia-
ons are under way at two
ndfills to take the methane
is that rises from decom-
osing debris and convert it
electricity.

"We'll pay a little extra but
we'll get people talking about
," Smith said. "This lays the
foundation. It's like that first
step in a journey. This is not
the end-all."

TVA's program must win a
green" accreditation from
the Center for Resource Solu-
tions in San Francisco, and
will undergo a third-party,
early audit to track the clean
power produced in relation to
the money customers pay.

"We're selling green power
and we want to make sure it is
green," said Jim Purcell,
Nashville Electric Service
program implementation
manager.

While customers who ante
up can't be assured that solar
cells or wind created the elec-
tricity flowing into their
toasters each morning, they
can know their money is pay-
ing for a corresponding flow
of clean energy into the over-
all power grid, he said.

As it is, about 68% of the
electricity TVA creates and
sells to 159 distributors in sev-
en states comes from coal.
About 22% is nuclear and
10% hydroelectric power.

While burning coal is
cheaper than alternative en-
ergy sources, it is notorious
for releasing chemicals that
can combine with other pol-
lutants to cloud scenic vistas,
taint lakes, trigger asthma at-
tacks and add to global warm-
ing.

This is not TVA's first sor-
tie into solar power. About 20
years ago, the federal energy
producer funded a loan pro-
gram for residential water
heaters that absorbed the
sun's warmth in black panels.
The funding didn't last.

Meanwhile, TVA needed
to push power sales to help
pay the agency's billowing
debt. It stands at about $26
billion today, much a result of
nuclear power plant con-
struction.

TVA's electricity genera-
tion has been and is still paid
for by its customers and by is-
suing debt, though the agency
until recently got federal
funds for its non-power bud-
get.

With deregulation of the
electric utility industry on the
horizon, TVA and its distrib-
utors are among utilities na-
tionwide trying to appeal to
the public.

"We began the program be-
cause we thought it was im-
portant we give the public a
choice in their power," TVA's
Martocci said.

"It helps, too, by reducing
emissions."

While green power pro-
grams are generally a public
relations tool for utilities
heavily invested in coal or
other fossil fuels, one indus-
try observer said, these are al-
so experiments that could
provide breakthroughs for
more widespread use.

"We know we're going to
run out of fossil fuels. We
need to find alternatives,"
said Matt Murray, associate
director of the Center for
Business and Economic Re-
search at UT-Knoxville.

TVA has hit glitches. When
it tried to put wind turbines at
a college near Chattanooga,
neighbors worried about the
appearance objected. And
Memphis Light, Gas & Water
said no to the program, listing
concerns that officials had
that, for instance, non-partici-
pating customers might bear
part of the burden.

NES has been satisfied,
however, with TVA's plan that
includes helping market the
power. Customers, they say,
can opt in and out of the vol-
untary program as they wish.

The estimated $2-$10 that a
residential customer would
pay would go toward return-
ing some of the investment to
construct the solar and other
facilities as well as additional
costs, such as billing changes.

Solar cells are nothing new.
The photovoltaic arrays,
widely used in satellite opera-
tions, can be found in loca-
tions — often remote —
around the globe. They can
be seen along roadways local-
ly, powering flashing mes-
sages in construction zones,
for instance, on Tennessee
Department of Transporta-
tion signs.

Batteries are often used as
backup to store the daytime-
gathered energy. The plan in
TVA's program is to feed the
energy directly into the pow-
er grid.

While a few homeowners
have purchased their own so-
lar cells, the cost is still too
high for most.

One key to enhancing the
market and ensuring the TVA
program grows could be the
willingness of industry and
commercial officials to buy
into it.

"If you can get a Saturn or a
DuPont or others on board,
they use as much power as
hundreds of residential cus-
tomers," Smith said.

"We hope to see as many as
20% of the green power cus-
tomers be industrial/com-
mercial folks. It's being a good
corporate citizen."

NES hopes to sign up at
least 1% of its customers the
first year — about 2,750.
Signups are expected to begin
on Earth Day, April 22.

The snail pace start-up
doesn't worry TVA reform
advocate Smith.

"This is the first real seri-
ous program in the Southeast.
TVA's purchase of solar pow-
er will be the largest purchase
to date in the Southeast.

"This is like taking a huge
battleship and turning it a dif-
ferent way. I remember when
TVA wouldn't talk about
power with us. Now we're at
the table with them."