Allegheny Power customers can buy wind
energy
Dec 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Megan Miller Cumberland Times
News, Md.
Allegheny Power customers can now buy wind-generated electricity from
renewable energy broker Clean Currents -- but what will they actually be
getting?
Clean Currents, headquartered in Rockville, offers wind-generated
electricity to Allegheny Power customers in Allegany, Garrett,
Washington and Frederick counties, according to a Dec. 7 news release
from the company.
Clean Currents sells two products, electricity that's touted as either
50 percent or 100 percent wind energy. But that doesn't mean the
specific electrons flowing into a customer's home are actually coming
from wind turbines, explained company spokeswoman Kristi Neidhardt.
"It's actually more like supporting wind power," Neidhardt said. "We
purchase renewable energy credits. It's a way of helping wind farms to
be economically viable."
When companies sell "clean" electricity, what customers get is still
regular electricity out of the power grid, the same thing they'd be
getting from other suppliers. That's because the power generated by wind
farms and other renewable energy producers goes into the grid along with
the electricity produced from coal and other sources. There's no way to
keep electrons from one source separate from others or to bring only
wind-generated electricity into a home or office, unless the structure
is connected to its own wind turbine.
But when you buy electricity from a renewable energy broker, you are
actually purchasing clean energy -- in a way.
Renewable energy producers, such as wind farms, basically create two
products, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The
first is the actual, physical electricity that goes into the power grid.
The second product is an intangible commodity called a renewable energy
certificate. Every time a renewable energy producer generates 1,000
kilowatt-hours of electricity, it equals one certificate, which that
producer can sell.
Renewable energy brokers purchase the certificates, and each one is
representative of buying 1,000 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity.
Customers, in turn, basically pay for the certificates from the brokers
and indirectly support the renewable energy producer.
"Typically companies purchase the renewable energy certificates several
times throughout the year," said Clean Currents President Gary Skulnik.
"There's a procurement strategy based on customer base and pricing. The
customers at Allegheny Power now can lock in their pricing for one or
two years, because we've been able to lock in certificates for one- or
two-year periods."
That approach helps Clean Currents' offerings be priced competitively.
The company's rates for its 100 percent product are more expensive than
the average utility price, Neidhardt said, but its 50 percent rates are
slightly less expensive.
Clean Currents is only an electricity supplier and uses existing utility
lines to serve its customers. Customers who choose to switch to Clean
Currents will still have their electric lines serviced by the utility
company, and will still call the utility in the case of a power outage
or other problem.
Contact Megan Miller at
mmiller@times-news.com.
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McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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