Energy alert lets businesses, utilities, fire up generators

By HUNTER T. GEORGE The Associated Press 1/27/01 2:13 AM

Fair use and educational purposes only!

OLYMPIA (AP) -- Gov. Gary Locke has signed an executive order declaring an "energy supply alert," allowing refineries, utilities and other industries to fire up as many as 160 diesel generators statewide to produce more electricity.

The utility serving Tacoma and surrounding Pierce County communities expects to be among the first to benefit. Tacoma Power is bringing in 30 generators, enough to provide juice for about 28,000 homes, to ease the utility's reliance on volatile energy markets.

"This allows us to cut down on some of the bleeding by utilities," Tacoma Power Superintendent Steven Klein said at a Friday news conference.

Refineries in northwestern Washington make up the bulk of the requests for a total of about 160 generators, according to Stuart Clark of the state Department of Ecology. Besides Tacoma Power, other requests have come from industrial firms in Grays Harbor, Thurston and Spokane counties, he said.

Locke said he took action because the region's energy supplies are in a "very, very precarious condition."

"The state law gives my office the responsibility to do what it takes, when necessary, to provide more energy -- in this case electricity -- to ensure the public health, safety and general welfare of the citizens of this state," Locke said Friday.

Although the order temporarily suspends clean-air regulations, the governor and representatives of state and local air quality agencies emphasized that companies using generators will be required to reduce pollution "pound for pound."

"We're not looking to skate on any environmental regulations," Klein said.

Tacoma Power expects its generators to be in use until October, depending on market stability, reservoir levels, and a continuation of Locke's executive orders, which last 30 days.

The utility, which serves 146,000 customers, started testing the generators this week and may have some operating by next week, officials said.

The energy crunch is blamed on a combination of problems, including California's disastrous experiment with deregulation, a dry spell that has depleted the reservoirs that feed the Northwest's hydroelectric dam system, and a lack of new power plants to keep up with the region's growth.

Tacoma Power's customers have been hit harder than others. The utility imposed a 43 percent surcharge last month on residential bills to help cover the rising cost of electricity. Commercial and industrial users are paying even more.

To save money, the utility decided to set up 30 diesel generators at a substation in Tacoma's Tideflats. The 1.6-megawatt generators will produce a combined 48 megawatts of electricity.

If allowed to operate unrestricted, big diesel generators such as the kind Tacoma Power has can emit in one day the equivalent of a tractor-trailer's pollution over a 6,000-mile trip, said Dennis McLerran of the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency.

But air quality regulators and Tacoma Power officials said the utility's generators will be equipped with state-of-the-art pollution-control technology.

That wasn't enough to satisfy some clean-air advocates.

The Northwest Energy Coalition, which consists mainly of environmental groups as well as utilities, urged Locke to require conservation in exchange for allowing utilities and industries to increase air pollution.

"Making gains in energy efficiency is a way to salvage something positive from this terrible crisis," the coalition's executive director, Sara Patton, said in a news release.

Tacoma Power expects to spend $30 million over nine months for rental, fuel, installation, operation and maintenance. Another $10 million will be spent for environmental mitigation, according to utility officials.

Power from the generators is expected to cost about $150 per megawatt-hour, which is below market prices that are expected to average between $200 and $300, utility officials said. The total value of power from the generators is estimated at $25 million to $40 million less than the cost of buying the electricity on the market.

Locke also issued a separate order that requires local governments to reduce their consumption of electricity and natural gas by 10 percent. The directive, which will apply to county and city governments as well as such entities as fire and hospital districts, matches an earlier order targeting state agencies.

"Citizens should not have to drive by a government building at night only to see lights on that don't need to be on," Locke said. "Basically, we're asking government to lead by example."

A third order issued Friday allows a steam plant run by the city of Tacoma to burn alternative fuels, such as used oil and asphalt waste, but does not let it exceed pollution standards.

On the Net:

http://www.governor.wa.gov

http://www.ci.tacoma.wa.us/power/

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), January 27, 2001