The Board of Water and Power Commissioners for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) wants the municipal utility to meet their renewable portfolio standard (RPS) seven years earlier than a previous goal required. LADWP will start meeting directly with neighborhood councils, homeowners, businesses and other stakeholders to discuss the plan.
The new goal would require renewable energy sources to provide 20 percent of the City’s power mix by 2010. LADWP believes that the plan "is in the best interests of the ratepayers."
The accelerated renewable energy plan was presented to the Board during a December 13 workshop and it outlines how LADWP would meet the goal by procuring renewable energy resources to own directly and/or purchase. The renewable resources will include a mix of wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, small hydroelectricity, and solar power.
In addition to the public meetings, LADWP was directed by the Board to prepare and submit for consideration a renewable energy surcharge to support the cost of accelerating the RPS and to maintain the financial integrity of LADWP’s Power System during times of natural gas price volatility. According to the presentation, the surcharge to meet the RPS would rise from .02 cents per kWh in 2007 to .44 cents per kWh in 2017. At the highest level, a homeowner using 7,000 kWhs per year would pay about $30 extra each year to support the plan.
To meet the accelerated goal LADWP will need to procure an additional 3,500 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy by 2010. Currently, about 5.5 percent of LADWP’s energy mix comes from renewable resources. LADWP has numerous renewable energy procurements already in process but will need to do more in order to meet the accelerated RPS goal.
More
- Accelerated RPS Action Plan Presentation – December 13, 2005
- LADWP’s section on Renewable EnergyPolicy
