Wind turbines spinning

Wind turbines spinning on the Palouse are the final piece of Avista Utilities’ strategy to meet Washington’s new renewable energy standards.

Energy from the 58-turbine Palouse Wind farm, which started operations last year, has pushed the Spokane-based utility over the top. Even with future customer growth, Avista officials say they’ve lined up enough qualifying renewable energy to meet Initiative 937’s requirements through 2020.

Passed by voters in 2006, the initiative requires most utilities serving Washington customers to get 15 percent of their electricity from new renewable sources by 2020. The initiative’s goal is to diversify green energy production in Washington, prompting investment in wind, solar, geothermal and biomass in a state long dependent on hydropower, said Danielle Dixon, senior policy associate for the NW Energy Coalition in Seattle.

More than $8 billion has been spent on wind, solar and biomass development in Washington over the past 15 years, with the majority funneling into wind. At least part of that investment can be attributed to I-937’s passage, initiative backers say.

Some utilities “acquired early and acquired sufficiently,” which means they’ve blown past the upcoming deadlines, Dixon said.

In addition to Avista, Puget Sound Energy has enough resources in place to generate 15 percent of its electricity from new renewable resources, said Ray Lane, PSE spokesman. The utility, which serves about 1.1 million customers in the Interstate 5 corridor, built its own wind farms.

Avista provides electricity to about 237,000 Eastern Washington electric customers. The utility is ahead of the game for several reasons, said Jason Thackston, the company’s vice president for energy resources.

Avista was able to count toward I-937 requirements additional energy produced from the installation of new turbines at its Clark Fork River dams, because the turbines produce more kilowatts from the same river flow. Avista can also count energy from two long-term wind contracts, along with upcoming work at two Spokane River dams that will increase electrical output.

Through a legislative amendment, Avista will be able to count electricity produced at its existing Kettle Falls biomass plant toward the renewable tally beginning in 2016. However, the utility will have to document that the wood waste burned at the plant doesn’t come from old-growth forests, said Jessie Wuerst, an Avista spokeswoman.

Avista spent about $3.6 million last year to meet I-937’s requirements, according to information filed with the state. The cost represents less than 1 percent of a residential customer’s electric bill, officials said.

As a result of I-937, Avista invested sooner in new generating resources than it otherwise would have, Thackston said. But the utility got a good deal on its 30-year contract to purchase electricity from the Palouse Wind farm near Oakesdale, Wash., he said.

Buying energy from the Palouse was cheaper than Avista’s projected cost of putting up its own wind turbines on land it purchased near Reardan, Thackston said.

While Avista has met I-937’s requirements with relative ease, its smaller neighbor – Inland Power – is in a different situation.

Inland Power is an electric cooperative that serves 39,000 customers spread across 13 counties. Most are rural residents and 42 percent are low-income, said Chad Jensen, Inland Power’s chief executive officer.

Inland Power is already one of the nation’s greenest utilities, purchasing 81 percent of its electricity from federal hydroeletric dams, Jensen said. Because its customer base is relatively stable, complying with I-937 will force the utility to invest in renewable energy it doesn’t need, he said.

“It’s a frustrating piece of legislation,” Jensen said. “We’re having trouble getting sensible changes that we think should be easy tweaks.”

Inland Power lobbied the Legislature this year, saying that upgrades at federal hydroelectric facilities should count toward the utility’s I-937 requirements. That’s one of the inequities in the initiative, Jensen said: If utilities own the dam, they get credit for upgrades that increase electrical output. If they don’t own the dam, they can’t count the upgrades toward I-937.

Inland Power is spending nearly $3.4 million to help finance major upgrades at Grand Coulee and Chief Joseph dams, two federal dams on the Columbia River that produce power the utility purchases.

Though Inland Power couldn’t get the Legislature to adopt the change this year, Jensen said the utility will continue to push for an amendment. More than 50 bills related to I-937 were introduced during the last legislative session, which hampered the effort, he said.

“There were so many bills trying to change Initiative 937 that we couldn’t get any traction,” Jensen said.

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Cut Victoria city management bonuses to save jobs

Victoria should rein in “skyrocketing” spending on consultants and cut management bonuses instead of laying off unionized workers to meet budget targets, CUPE 50 president John Burrows told councillors on Tuesday.

“If it is council’s desire to meet your budget reduction goals through the reduction in staffing levels, then I submit that it’s time for the exempt staff to share some of the loss,” Burrows said.

As part of its efforts to limit annual property tax increases to 3.25 per cent over the next three years, the city is considering automating all parkades and cutting gardening jobs by replacing annual plantings with perennials.

Burrows said instead of the false economy of laying off CUPE members, city councillors should be taking a closer look at costs of contracted services.

In fact, under the city employee bylaw, exempt staff are eligible for either a bonus equivalent to two per cent of a year’s salary or a week’s holiday in lieu of overtime, and that’s unchanged. Eliminating those bonuses would save the city $200,000 a year, Burrows said.

“They also enjoy discretionary days off, earned days off and a flex-time work schedule, with the outcome being that many work only four days per week,” Burrows said.

After the presentation, councillors asked senior staff for more information on what’s considered contracted and miscellaneous spending.

Mayor Dean Fortin said it’s important to get a breakdown of the spending because many functions such as photocopy machine maintenance or advertising could fall under the category of consulting.

Coun. Lisa Helps said automation of parkades is “small potatoes” but eliminating the two per cent bonus for exempt staff makes sense.

“The parkades are not the big concern [for me]. The big concern is salaries and benefits to all of our city employees, and the ones that we have most control over are exempt staff.” Coun. Ben Isitt said he had a number of concerns about potentially automating parkades.

“I’m not convinced that replacing workers with machines moves our community in a desirable direction in the long run or even in the short run,” Isitt said.

The change would not only affect the workers who will lose their jobs and their families, Isitt said, but there are potential increases in policing costs as well as a potential loss in revenue if people become frustrated with the machines and decide to park elsewhere.

“The capital cost estimate for the proposed parkade automation is $500,000. There appears to be no estimate of maintenance, repair, replacement and upgrade costs for this proposal, although it is safe to assume these won’t be zero,” he said.

Burrows noted that 2,826 people had signed petitions in opposition to the automation of parkades.

“The change to perennial plants will not result in a great enough reduction in labour to lay off two gardeners. The implication in this proposal is that the gardeners have no tasks to perform other than maintaining flower beds. In fact, they are also responsible for shrub beds, ferneries and pruning around the city and more notably, in Beacon Hill Park,” he said.

“Additionally, perennial plants will still require planting, watering, weeding, soil renewal, fertilizing and protection from insects, fungi and other pathogens.”