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Green Pricing

Top Ten Utility Green Power Programs

(as of December 2015)

Which utilities are having the greatest success with their green power programs? NREL has compiled extensive data on utility green power programs and produced the following "Top Ten" lists of program characteristics and results: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, the percentage of customer participation, and green power sales as a percentage of total utility retail electricity sales.


Previous Top Ten Lists -
December 2014, December 2013, December 2012, December 2010, December 2009, December 2008, December 2007, December 2006, December 2005, December 2004, December 2003, December 2002, December 2001, June 2001, November 2000, April 2000


The Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has released its assessment of leading utility green power programs. Using information provided by utilities, NREL has developed "Top 10" rankings of utility green power programs for 2015 in the following categories: total sales of renewable energy to program participants, total number of customer participants, participation rate (the percentage of utility customers that participated in green pricing programs), and sales rate (green pricing sales as a percentage of total utility sales).

Ranked by renewable energy sales (megawatt-hours/year), Portland General Electric remained in the top spot by selling over 1.3 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable energy through its voluntary green power program. Indianapolis Power & Light Co (IPL) and Silicon Valley Power were new to the top renewable energy sales with 182,496 (9th) and 179,621 (10th) MWh, respectively. Green power sales of the top 10 utility programs exceeded 5 million MWh in 2015, up from 4.68 million MWh in 2014.

Portland General Electric's Green Source program achieved the highest participation rate (14.65% of eligible customers), followed by Farmers Electric Cooperative - Kalona (11.93%) and Sacramento Municipal Utility District (11.75%). Alameda Municipal Power and Stoughton Utilities were new to the top participation rate list with 6.44% (8th) and 5.14 % (10th). Portland General Electric, PacifiCorp and Xcel Energy remained in the top 3 in terms of total number of participants. Total green power program participants in the top 10 programs totaled 543,382, increasing from 526,733 in 2014. National Grid and We Energies were new to the top participants list with 16,276 (9th) and 15,595 (10th) customers, respectively.


Top Green Power Program Participants
(as of December 2015)
Rank Utility Green Power Participants
1 Portland General Electric 128,983
2 PacifiCorp 106,655
3 Xcel Energy 96,635
4 Sacramento Municipal Utility District 71,875
5 Puget Sound Energy 43,365
6 Dominion Virginia Power 26,974
7 Consumers Energy Company 19,618
8 Iberdrola: New York State Electric & Gas and Rochester Gas & Electric 17,407
9 National Grid 16,276
10 We Energies 15,595

Top Green Power Participation Rate
(as of December 2015)
Rank Utility Participation Rate
1 Portland General Electric (Green Source) 14.65%
2 Farmers Electric Cooperative - Kalona 11.93%
3 Sacramento Municipal Utility District 11.75%
4 PacifiCorp - Oregon (Blue Sky Usage, Block and Habitat) 9.46%
5 River Falls Municipal Utilities 8.58%
6 Silicon Valley Power 7.94%
7 Madison Gas & Electric Company 7.16%
8 Alameda Municipal Power 6.44%
9 Naperville Public Utilities - Electric 5.97%
10 Stoughton Utilities 5.14%

Note: Other PacifiCorp programs have rates of 8.98%: Pacific Power (CA, OR, WA) - residential only; 7.91%: Pacific Power - Usage, Habitat, Block (PP system wide - OR; WA; CA); 7.37%: Pacific Power-Blue Sky Usage & Habitat; 5.83%: PacifiCorp PP & RMP.

Top Green Power Sales
(as of December 2015)
Rank Utility Sales (MWh/year)
1 Portland General Electric 1,356,388
2 PacifiCorp 716,849
3 Austin Energy 637,462
4 Sacramento Municipal Utility District 629,625
5 Puget Sound Energy 482,772
6 Dominion Virginia Power 345,223
7 Xcel Energy 340,973
8 Tennessee Valley Authority 202,195
9 Indianapolis Light and Power Company 182,496
10 Silicon Valley Power 179,621

Top Green Power Sales Rate
(as of December 2015)
Rank Utility Sales Rate
1 Portland General Electric (Green Source) 10.47%
2 Sacramento Municipal Utility District 6.01%
3 Silicon Valley Power 5.64%
4 PacifiCorp (Blue Sky Usage & Habitat) 5.30%
5 Edmond Electric/City of Edmond 5.15%
6 Austin Energy 4.56%
7 Waterloo Utilities 4.37%
8 River Falls Municipal Utilities 3.76%
9 Madison Gas and Electric Company 3.11%
10 Stoughton Utilities 2.69%

Note: Portland General Electric's Commercial & Industrial Clean Wind program has a rate of 5.92%; PacifiCorp's Usage, Habitat and Block (Oregon) program a rate of 4.09%.

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