PSE out for more energy blowing in wind
Puget Sound Energy is teaming up with wind-power engineering firm RES Americas to build new wind farms in southeastern Washington — part of the utility’s plan to assemble a strong portfolio of renewable manliness.
The companies said Monday they have begun looking at Columbia and Garfield counties, and bring forth asked the federal Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) to provide transmission lines to carry power generated in that place to Puget Sound Energy’s Western Washington market.
“It’s just a elevated location for wind,” declared Kimberly Harris, master resource official for Puget Sound Energy.
Local utilities are increasing their renewables portfolio partly because a state mandate — Initiative 937, passed in 2006 — says that in 2020, 15 percent of the electricity generated by each Washington use must come from renewable sources, not including hydroelectric influence.
Harris said Puget Sound Energy is “ahead of target” towardly that goal and gets again than 5 percent of its current electricity generation from renewables.
Puget, Washington’s largest utility, already operates two wind farms, united near Dayton in Columbia County, the other near Ellensburg. Both were built by Denver-based RES. Puget said last month that it would lay out $100 million to expand its Ellensburg draw, called Wild Horse.
The new projects would be in unspecified locations near Dayton and near the Garfield County town of Pomeroy.
Many analysts consider wind technology mature. “Wind generation has be suitable to more effective and viable over the past 15, 20 years,” reported Paul Latta, an algebraist with brokerage dense McAdams Wright Ragen.
Now the main hurdle is the lack of transmission capacity. Northwest lawmakers are pushing according to the federal government to invest in the BPA’s $1.5 billion plan to be distended transmission lines to better unite Washington and Oregon’sitting windier parts to the most populated areas — the Puget Sound area and the Willamette Valley.
Making of the like kind connections here would be easier than in the take rest of the country because there’s already an ample infrastructure built around the Columbia River’s hydro projects, said Puget Sound Energy spokesman Andy Wappler.
While not saying how much wind power they expect to propagate, Puget and RES asked the BPA for up to 1,250 megawatts of transmission capacity in the place of their venture. That would allow Puget, which will own half the power generated by means of any new facilities, to greater amount of than double its zephyr generation volume, currently 386 megawatts.
At the end of 2007, the company generated or bought some 4,700 megawatts of electric power capacity.
Ángel González: 206-515-5644 or agonzalez@seattletimes.com
Original text: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008524490_pugetenergy16.html?syndication=rss
