Costs questioned as TVA ponders energy efficiencyApr 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Ed Marcum The Knoxville News-Sentinel, Tenn.
It's a case of cost versus environmental concerns. TVA has long been under pressure from environmental groups to make more use of energy efficiency as a power resource, but now the agency is seeing some pushback on that idea from some of the power distributors it serves who question the costs of that approach. Several officials from these utilities spoke when the Tennessee Valley Authority held a public meeting Monday to review a draft version of its Integrated Resource Plan, which deals with the mix of energy resources TVA will rely on for the next 20 years. After several speakers told TVA planners that the draft plan could make more use of energy efficiency and renewable resources than it does, Bill Carroll, general manager of Greeneville Light and Power Systems, asked TVA to be cautious in pursuing these new power sources. Energy-efficiency efforts are implemented to a large extent through TVA's distributors and their customers, so Carroll urged TVA to consider what this might do to costs and rates. "With the exception of the folks in this room, lots of people worry about costs," he said. TVA is working on a final version of its resource plan, which it plans to present to the TVA board in August. In the meantime, TVA is holding public meetings and a public comment period runs through April 27. The next public meeting is Thursday, in Huntsville, Ala. Online comments may be made at tva.gov/irp. Energy efficiency has been gaining emphasis in TVA's resource planning. Instead of a concrete thing such as a coal or gas plant, it's just the use of methods that will give the same or more results from less energy input. An example is replacing a regular light bulb with one that produces more light for less power. But, the lower power demand that results can mean less revenue for utilities to meet capital expenses and other costs. Greg Williams, general manager of Appalachian Electric Cooperative, urged TVA to consider that energy efficiency might hurt the margins of power companies and cause them to have to raise rates. Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said it would be a mistake for TVA to help utilities prop up inefficient distribution systems. "The problem is, if you were designing a system today at TVA, would you really design it with 155 distribution networks or would you more efficiently design it so that you didn't have all that overhead?" Smith said. Gary Brinkworth, TVA manager over the resource plan update, said that resources such as energy efficiency are moving electric power away from being centrally generated to generation that is more dispersed, and both TVA and its distributors will have to adjust to that. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=35760827 |