A few words on electricity in Washington state

 

* Almost entirely dominated by bundled utilities. Of ~$7.2 billion in electric sales last year, four represented more than half - Puget Sound Energy ($2.1 billion), Seattle City Light, Snohomish PUD and Avista. Shell, BP and Calpine sold $31m, $21m and $272k respectively.

* Puget Sound Energy is the leader for residential and commercial customers (one million and 135,000 respectively), but only fourth for $ sales to industrials - the PUDs for Cowlitz and Grant Counties, and the City of Tacoma, each sell more.

* Electric reliability is about average for the US. SCL had a SAIDI (with MED) of 133 in 2018, PSE (with a larger and more difficult territory) had 434. SAIDI with MED average for US is about 320.

* State peak demand is about 15GW summer and 17.5GW winter.

 

 

* The Grand Coulee Dam on Washington's Columbia River is the largest hydroelectric power plant in the United States by generation capacity, and can provide electricity to 2.3 million households a year.

* Washington is the top U.S. producer of electricity from hydroelectric sources and routinely accounts for 25% of the nation's annual utility-scale net hydroelectricity generation.

* Although not a crude oil producing state, Washington has the fifth largest U.S. oil refining capacity for making petroleum products with the ability to process 638,000 barrels of oil a day at the state's five refineries.

* Just over one-half of Washington households rely on electricity as their primary heating fuel and one-third of households depend on natural gas.

* Because of the relatively low operating costs of hydroelectric power generation, Washington had the nation’s second lowest average retail electricity price, after Louisiana, in 2017. Washington is also close to the lead for the nation's cleanest grid power, at 209lbs/MWh.

 

 

* Washington has a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 and 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

* Washington is a member of the Western Climate Initiative (WCI), a regional agreement among some American governors and Canadian premiers to target greenhouse gas reductions. The central component of this agreement is the eventual enactment of a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020.

* Washington has a de facto ban on new coal-fired power plants. House Bill 3141, passed in 2004, requires a 20 percent offset in carbon dioxide emissions from new fossil fuel power plants, significantly increasing the cost of generating electricity from coal and natural gas.

* RPS: Washington requires that utilities generate from renewable sources a certain percentage of the electricity that they sell. The state’s renewable portfolio standard mandates that utilities that serve more than 25,000 customers generate 15 percent of electricity from renewables by 2020.

* Hydroelectric generation projects are eligible if incremental electricity produced as a result of efficiency improvements completed after March 31, 1999, meets certain specifications.

* Net Metering: Washington first enacted net metering for solar owners in 1998, requiring Washington’s 60+ electrical utilities to offer net metering up to 0.25% of their 1996 peak demand for electricity. In 2014, the net metering threshold was increased to 0.5% of 1996 peak demand for each utility. SB5223, passed in 2019, raises that cap to 4%, and changes the net metering reset date to March 31 each year.

* Current net metering capacity is ~155MW.

* Energy Efficiency: Washington requires utilities to meet a portion of electricity demand with energy efficiency. In 2006, voters approved ballot initiative I-937, which requires utilities to implement all cost-effective energy efficiency measures.

* Washington requires new residential and commercial buildings to meet energy efficiency standards. Commercial buildings must meet a state code equivalent to ASHRAE 90.1-2004, while the state code exceeds ASHRAE for equipment and lighting standards.