Colorado Clean Energy Bill hopes to boost production of Renewable Energy
By VIVIENNE JANNATPOUR
Colorado Daily Staff
January 5, 2004
The Colorado General Assembly convenes Wednesday and key among its issues will be a bill mandating utilities to produce a larger percentage of energy from renewable sources.
The Colorado Clean Energy bill, sponsored by Speaker of the House Lola Spradley, requires investor-owned utilities to produce increasing amounts of energy from renewable sources including wind, solar and biomass.
Stephanie Bonin, Energy Advocate for Environment Colorado, the environmental offshoot of CoPIRG, has been lobbying the legislature in favor of Spradley's bill. "This legislation will move us away from our dependence on dirty and expensive fossil fuels," she said.
The bill mandates that utilities produce or purchase renewable energy totaling 500 megawatts by 2006, 900 megawatts by 2010, and 1800 megawatts by 2020. According to Bonin, 900 megawatts in 2010 would equal just less than 10 percent of the energy supplied by Colorado utilities. "But that's still an improvement," she said. One megawatt supplies the amount of power required by a community of about 1,000 people.
With the addition of the newly built Colorado Green wind farm near Lamar, Xcel Energy - by far the largest utility affected by the bill - will be generating 250 megawatts of renewable energy.
According to Spradley, Xcel Energy supported the bill last year and will likely do so again. "We have in the past supported the bills that require a percentage of energy to come from renewable sources, but it's too early to tell on this new one," said Mark Stutz, spokesperson for Xcel Energy.
The bill, now in its third incarnation, was defeated last year in the Senate Business Affairs Committee by one vote. One of the key problems for the large industrial groups was a five-cents-per-kilowatt-hour price cap. "They're really sensitive to anything that might increase rates. They buy huge chunks of electricity: if rates go up for them even a tenth of a percent, it's a big deal in their business process," said Susan Holland of the Center for Resource Conservation in Boulder.
Spradley feels the sponsors now better understand the issues and objectives surrounding the bill and have adjusted accordingly. "The price cap seemed to be a target last year, people believed that was going to be the price, but it was only the cap," she said. "We're working on the language to allow the Public Utilities Commission to go through its regular process for setting a competitive price." Spradley said that with these changes, she feels the industry groups will accept the bill.
But the Colorado Rural Electric Association (CREA), which represents electric cooperatives and serves 70% of land area in the state, has other problems with the bill. "We are not opposed to renewable energy, but the nature of wind is intermittent. The best you can depend on is 30-35% of the time. How do you manage load that is coming into and out of your system? You've got to ramp up and ramp down. Reliability becomes a question," said Ray Clifton, Executive Director.
The association says they also have concerns about the mandate because of unknown costs. "The speaker has excluded electric cooperatives from the definition of a utility, but there's a cost recovery section that allows regulated utilities, like Xcel, to recover costs from four of our co-ops," said Donnah Moody, the association's State Affairs Representative.
In general, CREA feels a mandate is unnecessary. "If wind power is cost competitive, which the proponents are claiming it is, then why do we have to mandate it?" added Clifton.
Making wind energy cost competitive is exactly what the group at the Wind Technology Center is trying to do. The wind center is part of the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) just outside Golden. At any one time, 15 to 30 machines are being tested at the wind center for resistance to wear and tear, and new technologies are being developed in a quest to increase efficiency and decrease costs. In the meantime, "Renewable Portfolio Standards have worked well in other states and they have been a real incentive for installing more renewables. It provides a market, it helps move things along," said George Douglas, director of media relations at NREL.
And Stephanie Bonin will continue to fight for the cause. "The Colorado Clean Energy Bill would jump start the renewable energy market in Colorado and provide the assurance and long term planning our utilities need. The time is now for Colorado to be a clean and affordable energy leader," she said.