As Sonoma County's political leaders continue to move forward with the process of setting up a county-wide public power agency, many in the business community are examining what the renewable energy-focused proposal would mean to their operations.
[caption id="attachment_72578" align="alignleft" width="400"] Some 3,444 solar panels installed at the Mark West Quarry are capable of producing 1,165 megawatt-hours of clean energy annually. (Business Journal file photo)[/caption]
While rates remain a central concern, leaders in wine, manufacturing and retail said that the treatment of renewable energy fed into the grid from solar power and other means could be a significant factor in their decision to become a customer of the agency known as Sonoma Clean Power.
In a region where environmental concerns are widely considered a prudent business practice, those businesses said that an aggressive program to reward producers of renewable energy could help spur further development and promote the proposed agency's goal of procuring as much power as possible from sources within Sonoma County.
"We often talk internally -- what would it look like if we could expand this system and make it profitable?" said Christopher Silva, president of St. Francis Winery, describing the company's 457-kilowatt photovoltaic system to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, which also governs the proposed agency.
"We got into this because it was the right thing to do," he said. "Not only are we asking you to do the right thing, but something that could be profitable to business."
It would not be the first such program in California, as the state's Public Utilities Commission authorized Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and other large utilities to begin buying back power from smaller-scale producers on a limited basis in 2008. The program quickly hit its predetermined cap, expanding several times since and potentially expanding to allow additional and larger-scale participants later this year.
Participants can either enter into an arrangement that measures their net energy usage, potentially reaching "zero," or a program tailored more for larger-scale producers that would receive a "feed-in tariff" for the excess power fed into the grid, said Brittany McKannay, North Bay spokeswoman for PG&E. Credits and payments are required to be at the retail rate for power at that time of day, she said.
Some Sonoma County companies are already participating, including the aggregate and asphalt supplier BoDean Company. While the company has already been aggressive in its deployment of solar energy projects, the arrangement with PG&E was a key part in the decision to build a 1.165-megawatt-hour solar facility at the company's Mark West quarry in 2010, said Bill Williams, operations manager.
Yet after speaking to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Mr. Williams said that the impact of the solar project has been a far cry from what the company expected. While the system is designed to cover all or even more than the quarry's power needs, a lack of sunlight can push the quarry to temporarily convert to drawing power from the grid at a high cost during peak hours.
That cost, attributed to quarry's large power needs, can add up to hundreds of thousands annually and has worked to overwhelm the financial benefits of the quarry's renewable energy production, he said.
"Even though it's possible to have produced more power than we had consumed, we can still look at a $200,000 bill from PG&E at the end of the year," he said.
Mr. Williams said that PG&E has invested significant effort to help the quarry distribute its demand across several meters, aiming to keep usage below the threshold that commands a much higher energy cost. Yet as the utility is forced to work within the framework of the CPUC program, Mr. Williams said that a local agency may be able to develop programs that are more custom-tailored to power usage patterns for the quarry and other large-scale power users in Sonoma County.
"It makes good business sense to install solar, but only if it works on the tariff side," he said.
It remains unknown how Sonoma Clean Power might ultimately reward renewable energy production, though planners have said it is a high-priority element of the proposed agency. Marin County's Marin Clean Energy, an agency that has served as an adviser for Sonoma Clean Power, currently pays one cent more than the retail rate to customers producing more power than they consume, said Greg Brehm, resource coordinator for Marin Clean Energy.
Unlike the similar "net metering" program authorized for PG&E, which bases its benefit on year-end net energy use, the Marin program is based on the cost of power throughout the day. A home with rooftop solar, for example, could produce less than it consumes over the course of a year but realize a net benefit by producing power during the high-demand midday period, Mr. Brehm said.
