Success Stories for Washington
Ferry County Public Utilities District (PUD) (WA-046): As a follow-up to our earlier story (see below), pictured here is the "first working light bulb" generated by PUD's Solar PV system. This installation is roughly 15 miles from the nearest powerlines, which belongs to Avista, an investor owned utility. It is also nearly 40 miles from the end of the PUD system, but still within one of their Commission Districts, therefore PUD provides the service. PUD is in the last stages of preparing at least two more Solar PV installations. They are waiting for the snow to melt and the ground to thaw.
March 2006
Ferry
County Public Utilities District (PUD) (WA-046): These "High Energy Cost
Communities" funds established an in-house resource to extend long term subsidized
financing to consumers living in remote areas not currently served by PUD. Ferry
County Community Services' local office estimated at the start of our program
that there are currently 175-200 households in the County that currently had
no access to electrical service. The majority of these households were using
small gasoline generators for their electrical needs. PUD has documented a fully-burdened
$/kWh cost for these systems at between $.237 and $.308. Others use solar PV
at a fully burdened cost of $.42/kWh, according to our documentation.
This program was made available to those consumers whose
present amortized cost of electricity exceeded $.23/kWh. These funds covered
the installation costs for conventional distribution line extensions or solar
photovoltaic systems. The customer will pay the cost of these services through
a surcharge to our standard facility charge that would see the installation
repaid over the system life, which would be 30 years for a conventional line
extension or 20 years for a solar photovoltaic installation.
PUD
is responsible for the maintenance of the Solar PV systems, treating them as
a part of PUD's distribution system.
These installations receive the same subsidy as our conventional line extensions. Presently PUD subsidizes the $9.50/foot installation cost at $3.00/foot, leaving a final customer cost to the customer of $6.50/foot.
Our High-Energy Cost Community Service Cost Assistance program has enabled us to provide power to customers who would otherwise have to continue meeting their energy needs with gasoline-fueled generation or undersized, but affordable, PV systems of their own. PUD has extended service to more than 50 residences, and placed these facilities within economical reach of hundreds of others.
October 2005