Princess Assists Seattle Citizens!
- From: Ray Goldenberg <ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 17:52:41 -0700
Hi Everyone,
I received this information from the Northwest Energy Efficiency
Alliance and thought it would be of interest. If you have missed any
of my news' postings, they are available on my web site.
Best regards,
Ray
LIGHTHOUSE TRAVEL
800-719-9917 or 805-566-3905
http://www.lighthousetravel.com
Seattle Utility Chases Climate Neutrality
Through an organized emission-reduction program, Seattle City Light is
on pace this year to become the first utility in the nation to achieve
carbon neutrality. The electric utility plans to get there with two
new programs: one gives customers more choices about where their
energy comes from; the other curbs emissions from cruise ships docked
in Elliott Bay. By Michael Burnham
Through an organized emission-reduction program, Seattle City Light is
on pace this year to become the first utility in the nation to achieve
carbon neutrality, officials at the municipal utility say.
City Light plans to get there with two new programs: One gives
customers more choices about where their energy comes from; the other
curbs emissions from cruise ships docked in Elliott Bay.
Starting this summer is the Green-Up program, which allows City
Light's commercial customers to buy a percentage of their energy as
renewable power. The program will offer wind energy certificates
supplied from the Stateline Wind Project at the Washington-Oregon
border at a premium of 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour.
City Light has a 20-year agreement with the wind farm's developer,
Portland-based PPM Energy, to purchase 175 megawatts (MW) of wind
energy from the project. In the future, the Green-Up program may also
be supplied from biomass and landfill gas projects, according to the
U.S. Department of Energy.
Commercial customers could get 5% to 100% of their energy through
Green-Up, said Sharon Bennett, a City Light spokeswoman. Already,
Seattle-based real estate firm Unico Properties Inc., has agreed to
purchase 8% of its annual energy, representing 3,125 MW, said Erica
Perez, a company spokeswoman.
And starting in September, residential customers will be able to buy
50% or 100% of their energy through the Green-Up program.
"The idea is to give residential and commercial customers a way to be
a good environmental citizen," said City Light Superintendent Jorge
Carrasco.
In addition to the Green-Up program, City Light plans to purchase
greenhouse gas offsets from Princess Cruise Lines, which docks two of
its behemoth ships, the Diamond Princess and the Sapphire Princess, at
the Port of Seattle's Terminal 30. Offsets will be created when the
ships plug into the city's electricity grid for power rather than burn
marine diesel fuel. The partnership is expected to cut by 30% the
total air emissions from Seattle-based cruise ships while they are
docked, according to City Light.
"Each cruise ship emits something like 2,500 tons of carbon dioxide
during the season when they are docking here," Carrasco said the
ships, which require about 100,000 kilowatts a day each. "By hooking
them up to shore power, they can turn off their diesel generators and
get power directly from City Light."
About 40 days a year, 10 hours a day, each 116,000-ton cruise ship
runs its diesel engines while docked in Elliott Bay to provide
sufficient power for more than 2,600 passengers. Through a partnership
with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other parties, City
Light is extending cable that will allow the big ships to hook up to
the city?s grid instead.
During the 2005 cruise ship season (May to September), Santa Clarita,
Calif.-based Princess Cruise Lines, is paying the utility a flat rate
of 6 cents per kilowatt hour to hook up to the grid, Bennett said.
City Light is paying the company $10,000 in exchange for the right to
the greenhouse gas offsets.
"Not only will greenhouse gas emission be reduced when the cruise
ships use electricity rather than diesel, but the emission of other
air pollutants will also be significantly reduced," Bennett added.
Princess Cruise Lines, a subsidiary of Miami-based Carnival Corp.
(NYSE: CCL), has invested about $1.5 million to equip the two vessels
to run on shore power, said Tom Dow, Carnival?s vice president for
public affairs. Ongoing costs of hooking the ships to on-shore grids
are about break-even, he added.
Each ship has a custom electrical connection cabinet that
automatically connects its electrical network to the on-shore
utilities. Electricity is transmitted from the transformer ashore to
the vessel via four 3-inch diameter flexible cables that hang
festooning-style on a special gantry system on the docks. The gantry
and the festooning equipment are designed to accommodate the rise and
fall of the tide.
Juneau, Alaska, is the only other port in the world that supplies
shore power to cruise ships. Alaska Electric Light & Power has been
providing shore power to the Seattle-based ships since summer 2001. A
similar arrangement makes sense in Seattle, Dow noted, where the two
ships spend about 400 hours a year on call.
?The onus for Princess is to find an acceptable resolution to concerns
about emissions in port,? Dow said. ?Princess plans to have a
long-term relationship with the Seattle port.?
Dow noted that the ship-to-grid arrangement with City Light would need
to be renewed on an annual basis.
The voluntary move by Princess to plug into Seattle?s on-shore grid
follows an agreement in 2004 by cruise lines operating in Seattle to
reduce wastewater emissions and implement a new inspection and
verification program covering the handling of wastewater and
recyclable materials. The agreement between cruise ship operators,
state regulators and Port of Seattle officials gives the region the
cruise industry?s strongest wastewater discharge rules, port officials
said.
.
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