Dec. 28, 2007 — Don't blame the Water and Power Authority entirely for your high utility bills, but you can blame them for not doing more to wean the territory off expensive oil-fired electricity generation.
That was the message, more or less, that Don Buchanan of the V.I. Energy Office delivered to the Rotary Club of St. Croix, leavened with some practical tips on how to save on your electric bill right now.
"One thing WAPA does not need to take the blame for is the LEAC," Buchanan told Rotary members at Gertrude's Restaurant Thursday afternoon. "What is it about the Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause? It seems sometimes that some government officials think the bigger and more confusing words they use the better job they are doing. If they just said 'oil' instead of 'LEAC' everyone would understand what it really is they are spending their money on."
He noted later that WAPA is not at fault for calling it "LEAC" either. The term was created by the Public Services Commission.
While WAPA is not responsible for the astronomical prices of the oil used to generate the territory's electricity and to desalinate seawater for the public water supply, they are responsible in Buchanan's eyes for not doing more to lessen oil dependence and promote renewable energy such as solar.
"I commend WAPA for meeting with some local banks recently to come up with plans to finance solar water heaters," he said. "But I just think the utility should be doing more, faster."
WAPA has missed some opportunities to take small but important first steps toward developing renewable energy. At the same time, the very high prices also present an opportunity by making solar power more financially practical than it is on the mainland, Buchanan said.
"In 2006 the (U.S.) Interior Department … recommended that WAPA install several four-to-five kilowatt rooftop mounted grid-connected photovoltaic systems to gain experience with small-scale solar technology," he said. "There has been no movement that I've seen. WAPA spends $12.5 million for oil a month," he said. "What do they have for that investment? Nothing: each month another bill comes due.
"The systems the report recommends would cost less than $50,000 and then they would have free energy every month. That's what 'renewable' means."
Buchanan did not propose WAPA immediately put solar panels on every building. Rather, he pointed out that once installed, even small systems would keep putting electricity into the grid into the indefinite future with no additional cost, so the sooner we begin, the greater the long-term benefits. And while the systems are indeed expensive and not necessarily cost-effective right away stateside, our high utility rates make them more cost-effective here.
"Earlier this month a business person wanting to invest in solar projects was visiting," he said. "He was offering to basically mortgage the capital costs of constructing the system, putting up a turnkey household five-kilowatt system. The homeowner wouldn't pay anything up front and would buy the power at 16 cents a kilowatt hour. That's a lot in some areas, but that's half what we pay."
Buchanan said he didn't know if the businessman could really have delivered on that estimate or not, but he felt WAPA could have looked into it.
"But no one from WAPA was available to meet him and find out," he said. "To be fair, last week might have been a bad time, with the holidays. But information on a financial model that is working in the states right now was offered and no one at WAPA responded."
Buchanan tempered his criticism further, noting that WAPA is hampered by a shortage of available cash due to tens of millions in unpaid government utility bills and by shortfalls between what it is paying for oil and what it is allowed to charge for the oil it must buy. But the bottom line, he said, was that no progress would occur until the first steps were taken.
"If we are ever going to institute these things, we have to start doing the work now," he said.
Meanwhile, Buchanan and the Energy Office are on the same page as WAPA in recommending households and businesses implement wide ranging conservation measures.
In addition to well-known measures like lowering the temperature of your hot water heater and switching to more efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs, Buchanan said you can save money by keeping an eye out for what he called "power vampires." These are devices like televisions, television cable boxes, computer hardware, stereo equipment and many others that are constantly using a little bit of power.
"Believe it or not, your cable box consumes a lot of electricity," he said. "That's because it is never off. It just keeps pulling five or 10 watts, all day and night, all year round."
One easy way he suggested to cut down on these little, but cumulative drains, is to plug as many as possible into a single power strip, then switch it off when you leave the house or the room.
Businesses in particular might be able to save money by installing putting power control devices on older electrical motors such as those found in industrial refrigerators. Newer household devices are already pretty efficient, he said, but older, pre-1990 electrical motors can be made much more efficient, saving businesses money.
For more tips on saving electricity, go to the WAPA website and to the Energy Office website.
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