Tennesseans top power users: Energy needs renew conservation debate

Tennessee
Energy needs renew
conservation debate

BY DAVE FLESSNER
BUSINESS EDITOR

Electricity usage in Tennessee, already at the highest per capita rate of any state, is rising nearly 50 percent faster than the national average, according to government reports.

Tennessee Valley Authority officials boast that relatively low electric rates have spurred more economic growth in the valley and encouraged a majority of Tennessee households to heat with electricity, rather than natural gas or heating oil.

But others see Tennessee's No. 1 ranking for electricity consumption as a dubious honor. Officials with environmental and conservation groups want TVA and its distributors to do more to encourage conservation, rather than simply building more power plants.

"TVA is providing absolute-
See ENERGY, Page A8

Tennessee Valley
tops in energy use

Top states for electricity use
State Average Price
monthly per
consumption kilowatt hour

1. Tennessee 1,249 kwh 6.34 cents
2. Louisiana 1,229 kwh 7.12 cents
3. Alabama 1,186 kwh 7.03 cents
4. Mississippi 1,180 kwh 6.75 cents
5. Texas 1,155 kwh 7.55 cents

Lowest states for electricity usage

1. Maine 493 kwh 13.07 cents
2. Rhode Island 529 kwh 10.13 cents
3. New Mexico 544 kwh 8.62 cents
4. California 548 kwh 10.71 cents
5. New Hampshire 560 kwh 13.84 cents

U.S. average 866 kwh 8.16 cents

SOURCE: 1999 RESIDENTIAL MONTHLY CONSUMPTION, ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION

Two TVA workers are dwarfed by giant turbines beneath Raccoon Mountain.

ly no leadership on helping its customers to better use power," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "There is no reason to rush headlong into building more nuclear and coal power plants without doing the types of programs TVA once did to ensure we utilize electricity more wisely."

TVA Chairman Glenn McCullough has pledged to provide extra power to meet growing electricity demands in the valley while lowering the cost of TVA power compared to other utilities.

TVA's residential electric rates average about one-fourth less than the U.S. average. As a result, electric consumption in Tennessee — TVA's biggest service area — is 22 percent higher than the national average, according to estimates prepared by the U.S. Energy Information Agency.

"People want to be comfortable in their homes and offices and with TVA's relatively low rates they are willing to pay for it," said Richard Crawford, executive director of the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association, the Chattanooga-based trade group for TVA's 158 distributors. "There hasn't been as much attention here on conservation as in some parts of the country, but I think the distributors want to help their members use energy as best they can."

TVA and its distributors will meet next month to develop a new approach for its Energy Right program, which rewards home builders who install electric heat pumps. Under the current program, home builders may receive up to 55 cents per square foot of electric-heated homes that meet basic energy efficiency standards.

Energy: State top user

Since its start 11 years ago, Energy Right has helped support 32,000 energy surveys, 54,000 electric water heaters and 38,000 electric heat pumps. Much of the program was intended to help electricity distributors compete against natural gas for home and water heating.

"We want to make the program even better and that's what we're working now to do," Mr. McCullough said.

In 1989, TVA abandoned most of its energy conservation programs, including its no-interest loan program for home insulation, its free home energy audits and its cycle-and-save program to help limit power peaks. TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon, who scrapped most of the conservation initiatives, said those programs had achieved most of their intended gains and it no longer made sense for TVA with a $27 billion debt to pay people to buy its product.

"We've always tried to tell people to only use the energy they need, but it never made sense to us to encourage people to put in things like woodburning stoves with all of their environmental problems rather than use electric heat," said Larry Wilcott, a Kentucky power distributor who serves as chairman of the TVPPA board.

Dr. Martin Kushler, director of utility programs for the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, said TVA was an early leader in energy conservation but hasn't since kept pace with other utilities in demand-side management.

TVA Director Skila Harris believes individual consumers and retail distributors should focus on such energy savings, not wholesale power suppliers such as TVA.

Karen Edmondson installs fiberglass insulation on the second story walls of a North Georgia house.

"Consumers create the demand for electricity and people need to make that individual decision about their energy consumption," she said. "We're a wholesaler of power. Our distributors are the people who really have the individual relationship with the residential consumer."

But Dr. Smith insists that TVA is more than just the supplier of energy to distributors, such as EPB in Chattanooga. Under the TVA act, the agency's board so acts as the regulator for power distributors. Unlike most states, Tennessee's Public Service Commission does not oversee electricity service.

"TVA needs to do more to help its customers better move as many electrons as it through a wire," Dr. Smith said.