By the Numbers
100 per cent green electricity
- Details
- Category: By the Numbers
- Written by Jim Bentein
You’re a committed environmentalist — so committed you’ve agreed to pay more for your electricity because it comes from “green” sources. But how do you know that the green power you’ve signed up to get actually comes from clean power sources, such as wind, solar or hydro?
In fact, as with many other transactions that consumers make, you have to rely on someone else’s word that what you are buying really is what the seller says it is.
In this case, that someone else is a utility, such as Calgary-based Enmax Corporation or Edmonton-based Epcor Utilities, or a power “reseller” such as Direct Energy Marketing or green-power specialist Bullfrog Power, both based in Toronto. The latter two don’t generate their own electricity, but sell electricity to consumers they purchase in bulk from power generators.
Both Direct and Bullfrog operate in Alberta’s deregulated market.
Rob Falconer, director of distributed generation for Enmax, says the only assurance consumers have that they are indeed buying green power comes from a third party. In this case it’s the federal government, through Environment Canada’s EcoLogo program, which provides certification that “low-impact” sources of power comply with its standards.
Falconer points out that there’s no certainty that the kilowatts of electricity flowing into your home are green. They’re just kilowatts.
“Some have the misconception that green power is being delivered differently by power providers,” he says. “That’s not the case. There are really only two ways to deliver it. Either directly, by someone having their own microgeneration at their home, such as solar or small wind, or indirectly, through a validation system like EcoLogo.”
Enmax pioneered the green power business in Canada, launching its Greenmax program in 1999. Customers who sign up for the company’s EasyMax program, which is a five-year fixed rate contract, can choose to put their annual reward dollars toward the production of renewable energy. Then, Enmax puts 5,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy power onto the grid, which works out to a cost of two cents per kilowatt-hour. This is enough to supply two-thirds of an average household’s electricity for a year.
Falconer says about five per cent of its customers have signed on to the Greenmax program. The company does use the additional capital it raises through the program to invest directly in clean sources of power, such as wind. It owns wind farms in southern Alberta and it also purchases wind-generated power from other providers. “Close to 50 per cent of the wind power in Alberta is contracted to Enmax,” says Falconer.
Bullfrog’s electricity comes exclusively from wind and hydro facilities that have been 100 per cent EcoLogocertified. Customers continue to pay for electricity through their current providers, but pay an additional two cents per kilowatt-hour for the green electricity. For the average home, that means paying about $12.50 a month. An independent third party audits Bullfrog Power on an annual basis to confirm that all the power injected into the grid meets EcoLogo standards.
