Utah Plans 18% Reduction In Electricity Use By 2015
by John Laumer, Philadelphia on 10.18.07
File this one under "Clout/Luck, Coal Sector."
The US State of Utah has issued a report indicating there is an opportunity to cut energy consumption, mostly [from wording in Platts coverage] through Demand Side Management (DSM) projects that would reduce reliance on gas-fired peaking plants. Sounds good right? How about the fact that 93% of Utahs' electricity is from coal? -- Ninety Three Percent --
Natural gas only provides about 4% of Utah's electicity. And, there's no significant efficiencies to be gained from coal fired generators. Unbelievable.
Energy efficiency programs could reduce Utah's electricity use 18% below projections by 2015 and lead to an overall reduction in natural gas use by 2020, according to a study released Tuesday.Utah Governor Jon Huntsman in 2006 set a statewide goal of cutting energy use by 20% by 2015. As part of that effort, he asked the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Utah Clean Energy to prepare an energy efficiency strategy, with input from key stakeholders, including utilities.
Electric and natural gas utility demand-side management programs offer the greatest potential in cutting energy use, the report said, adding that DSM project could reduce annual electricity demand growth to 1.2% from 3.2%, leading to a 2,375 GWh annual savings by 2015.
Maybe the strategy is more about keeping heating bills down than just conservation and reducing carbon emissions?
The cost of heating a Utah home is going down again this winter. Questar Gas today asked the Public Service Commission of Utah (PSC) to reduce natural gas rates for the sixth time in two years. If approved, the latest rate cut of $89.6 million would lower the typical homeowner’s annual bill by about 9 percent, beginning Nov. 1.
Via::Platts, "Increased efficiency could cut Utah electricity, gas use: study" and Questar Gas, QUESTAR GAS ASKS UTAH PSC TO CUT NATURAL GAS RATES BY ABOUT 9%; SIXTH-STRAIGHT RATE CUT BRINGS UTILITY'S RATES BACK TO 2004 LEVELS Image credit:: Learning Oasis, Power Plant Stacks
This is a bit misleading. Coal plants are cheaper to operate than natural gas plants, so they often run only when electric load is high: hot summer days, cold winter days, during the peak hours.
Energy efficiency measures will reduce usage in MANY hours, not just those peak times. A thousand CFLs at 6pm in November will still save you 50,000 watts per hour coming out of a coal plant. That's good news.
Sure, that same thousand CFLs at 3pm in July is only avoiding the need to burn natural gas, but the rest of the year it is avoiding the need to burn coal.
The problem, MY-T, is that coal is NOT cheaper, it just does not account for what economists call 'externalities' and we call 'pollution'. If the cost of that were factored in, perhaps through class action lawsuits, perhaps through carbon (and pollution?) taxes, coal would be priced out of the market.
93% of Utahs' electricity is from coal?
Does that also include the power we provide to CA because they can't burn coal there? Why am I breathing CA's pollution?
==== author's response follows ===
If I interpret the USDOE stats correctly the 93% is for electricity consumed in Utah, regardless of where it was generated. Similar stats are available also for California if you follow the links I provided.
Does that also include the power we provide to CA
How much power does Utah sell to California?
Why am I breathing CA's pollution?
Probably because you live in a poor state which has no problem with trashing the environment and the powers-that-be know you'll take it and keep voting them in.
Utah isn't a poor state, they've had a tax surplus for many years running — estimated to be about 400 million this year.
That's a lot of money that could be used to alternative energy initiatives.
The problem is that many in Utah can't seem to make the connection between their love for outdoor recreation and a need for environmental preservation. Utah has a Pavlovian response against anything that sounds remotely related to democrats.
On the note of "externalities", the Wasatch Front in central Utah (Logan, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Provo) has some of the worst acute air pollution in the country due to inversions. There is no way to justify calling coal cheap after you look at how many premature deaths and health expenses are caused by air pollution, unless you are fudging the numbers. The average resident of the Wasatch Front has the same life expectancy of the average chain smoker, two years premature. 80% of cancers are caused by environmental ill-health. This information is coming from Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment.
Utahns are breathing California's pollution for the same reason they are breathing China's pollution: it's in the air, we live by mountains, and governments that are dogmatically committed to continuous economic growth throw common sense and caution largely to the wind in their thirst for continued spending.