GreenPower usage in Australian Local Government

Wednesday, 9 September 2009

The stats

(or go straight to the poll)

Of the 160 local governments tracked by Planet Footprint:

• 54 (35%) purchased some GreenPower.
• Total GreenPower purchased in 2008-2009 was 63 GWh.  This is roughly the annual output of 20 industrial wind turbines.
• Total GreenPower purchased by local government accounts for 7% of total GreenPower consumption by all commercial customers in Australia.
• About a quarter of the Green Power purchased was for street lighing (see below).

Of the 54 local governments that purchase Green Power:

• The average percentage purchased is 11%  (of total kWh consumed for local government operations).
• The maximum purchased is 80%.
• 4 local governments have Green Power on all of their electricity acounts.

We have some interesting state by state comparisons but we are not going to start a competition by publishing them!

Street lighting

15 of the Planet Footprint councils (9%) purchase some GreenPower for their street lighting,  varying in amounts from 10% to 55% and averaging 26%.   For many this represents a significant financial commitment to reduce greenhouse emissions for an asset which the council does not control, since operation, maintenance and repair of street lighting is usually controlled by the electricity network provider and not the council. 

In late 2007, Senior staff at Bathurst Regional Council in NSW took a different approach and initiated a retrofit of street lighting.  The assistance of the local network operator Country Energy was sought and the response was very favourable; Country Energy offered to share the cost of the upgrades, which had a total cost of around $40,000.  Over a 2 year period many of the fluorescent and mercury vapour lights were replaced with high pressure sodum luminaires.

"Upgrading equipment that is often used for more than 12 hours per day made good sense to us", said Bathurst Region Mayor, Cr Paul Toole.  

"We have realised significant reductions in costs and greenhouse emissions despite an extension of the street lighting network into new subdivisions", says Mayor Toole.  The project, completed in 2009, has delivered annual savings of 40 MWh.   Ongoing financial savings are approximately $5,200 per year.  Based on Bathurst's financial contribution to the project the simple payback period is 4 years.

Recent increases in the cost of GreenPower have made the project even more worthwhile, compared to the alternative of buying Green Power.  Bathurst Regional Council continues to purchase Green Power for other assets in its portfolio.

Poll: How do you plan GreenPower purchases?

You are invited to contribute to this topic by answering these two short questions. For each question, simply click on your answer and then click Vote.  You can answer one or both questions.   The poll is anonymous and neither your identity nor that of your organisation will be recorded.

Planet Footprint and your GreenPower

Planet Footprint tracks Green Power usage for all of your properties and assets and is taken into account in greenhouse gas calculations throughout our suite of reports and tools.

If you're subscribed to Planet Footprint and you want to check your own Green Power usage, simply log into the subscribers area on our website and download your latest Service Detail Data - Electricity (Excel).  The worksheet has columns for Green Consumption (kWh) and percentage for each account for each quarter.  You can easily pivot this to show totals or averages for your whole organisation or by responsibility.

Need help?  Feel free to give us a call to about your Green Power score keeping.

GreenPower

Take up of GreenPower in Australia is nearing 1 million customers.  More than 95% are residential customers but commercial customers account for nealy half of all GreenPower consumed.

In Australia, GreenPower is sold under the National GreenPower Accreditation Program.  Your energy retailer buys renewable energy on your behalf.   Retailers are required to source 100 percent of accredited GreenPower sales from 'new' GreenPower generation, that is, from generators built or commissioned after 1 January 2007.  These sales must be in addition to legislated renewable energy purchases through the Mandatory renewable Energy Target.

Planet Footprint's head office uses 100% GreenPower.