Sunday, Nov. 01, 2009

Utilities' power plan holds big savings

CHARLESTON -- South Carolina's electricity cooperatives have an $800 million plan that could dramatically cut energy use in nearly a quarter million homes -- and cost almost no money.

The plan could save billions of dollars in costs for electricity use and power plant construction and substantially cut greenhouse gas pollution.

How would it work?

The federal government would put up grant and low-interest loan money. The cooperatives would administer the program and help homeowners use the money to upgrade the energy-efficiency of their homes. And the monthly savings on electricity bills would be divided between the homeowner and a loan repayment program.

Every bit of the money loaned to a homeowner would be repaid within eight years of the loan.

All the cooperatives have to do is persuade the federal government to buy into the idea.

The plan is the brainchild of Ron Calcaterra and his staff at the Central Electric Power Cooperative in Columbia, which purchases and supplies electricity for all 20 cooperatives across the state and will oversee the effort. The cooperatives cover mainly rural areas and serve about 1.4 million people, almost a third of the state's population.

The grant and loan proposal is the key aspect of a multi-part program by the cooperatives to cut the energy consumption 20 percent over the next 10 years. If successful it would reduce electricity use by about 700 megawatts, enough to pull an entire coal-fired power plant off line, or prevent construction of a new one.

By policy, Central views environmental protection and energy conservation as an important part of its efforts. The cooperative already has prevented the construction of a proposed $1.2 billion coal-fired power plant that Santee Cooper, the state-owned energy company, wanted to build in Florence County.

In August, Santee Cooper pulled the plug on that plant because Central switched 1,000 megawatts of the power it buys from Santee Cooper to Duke.

That made the proposed Pee Dee power plant unnecessary. Duke had excess power supply capacity due to the decline in the textile industry, and Central's action freed up electricity for Santee Cooper to meet the growing demand along the Grand Strand.

Central hopes to more effectively launch and target its proposed $800 million grant and low-interest loan program.

Calcaterra took that plan to Washington on Oct. 19 and presented it to the Rural Utility Service, an agency of the Department of Agriculture. He wants the federal government to provide $80 million a year for 10 years.

If the government approves the plan, the money would be used to weatherize the 150,000 homes, remove electric resistance heating elements from 75,000 other homes and replace them with efficient heat pumps and replace older heat pumps with new ones in another 15,000 homes.

To Calcaterra, the plan is simply too good for the government not to approve.

As an added benefit, it would boost the stimulus program by providing jobs all over the state to weatherize homes and buy and install more efficient heating and air units.