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Windy weather, wise investments

2009-11-19T15:21:00.000-08:00

Another windy night coming to the Puget Sound area, with the National Weather Service forecasting high winds again for the North Sound (especially Whidbey Island, Whatcom County and Skagit County) with gusts of 60 mph, and strong winds gusting to 40 mph or so for the rest of the area.

Pretty amazing to see windy weather four times in a single week, but that's life in our neck of the woods during November. In fact, November 19 is, historically, the day most likely to have rain -- with rain roughly 80 percent of the time on that date during the last century. Check out this nice chart on the KOMO-TV website for more stats.

So far in this stormy week, PSE's system has held out pretty well, with mostly short-term, scattered neighborhood outages despite winds that have gusted as high as 61 mph in areas we serve, with Bellingham and Whidbey Naval Air Station posting the highest wind speeds. Even higher gusts have been reported in the Cascades and Olympics, with Hurricane Ridge on the Olympic Peninsula and Crystal Mountain ski area near Mount Rainier both clocking winds of more than 100 mph.

Why is our system holding out? I'd credit three things: 1) smart investments in infrastructure and maintenance; 2) great people who are well-trained and know what to do, and 3) a little luck.

As far as the investments, we've been building a more robust system, including new substations, transmission lines, and more undergrounding of local distribution power lines. That all adds up to better reliability, with projects underway across Western Washington. On windy Whidbey Island, for example, we've put in some of the most modern equipment around, and this week it's been paying off in better reliability and fewer outages. Tree-trimming is a big year-round effort, with Whidbey Island again providing an example of how weathering the storm starts with being ahead of the storm -- trimming trees in the summer sun, and not when the wind blows.

When it comes to people, our team started having "mock storms" back in those sunny days of September, and everyday we have more than 130 power line repair crews, nearly 200 damage assessors (double what we had in 2006) and 25 tree crews ready to go.

And of course a little luck! The winds have been strong, but not quite where they begin to topple trees in big numbers. So far most gusts have been below 60 mph, and that's roughly the breaking point for our majestic Northwest timber.

As the wind blows tonight, keep your fingers crossed the gusts don't get too strong, and take a moment to breathe easier knowing PSE was working to build up our energy delivery system and have train up our people to be ready.

There's no "hunker" for PSE crews

2009-11-17T13:37:00.000-08:00

I love the phrase "time to hunker down." It says that big, bad weather is coming, and you, my friend, would be well advised to hunker, and do it without delay!

So what is "hunkering?" No one really knows, but it is commonly said by TV reporters in the midst of high winds and rain coming down sideways, and is generally accepted as a prudent move in times of severe weather.

Certainly, Western Washington has been doing our share of hunkering these days, with a big storm Sunday night and again last night -- and a few more expected. According to the National Weather Service, we'll see another wind storm for Wednesday night and Thursday, and possibly a pair of storms moving through the area on Friday night and Sunday night. That calls for some serious hunkering!

PSE crews have been doing the anti-hunker lately, when the rest of us are trying to stay warm and cozy indoors the men and women of our line service crews, damage assessor teams and tree crews (including those of our partners Potelco and Asplundh) have been heading out into the storm when everybody else has been battening down the hatches (another term I love even though I have no idea what it means).

From Sunday night through mid-day Tuesday, the PSE crew anti-hunker has meant restoring power to more than 52,000 customers who were hit by the wind storm -- no easy job in all that wind, rain and dark of night. As the UW's Cliff Mass notes on his blog, last night's wind came on quickly and packed a punch. The graphic here is a weather computer model depiction of the storm, and when the spaghetti of millibar pressure lines get too close together as they are here serious hunkerization is needed!

A key part of the PSE anti-hunker is getting out and being ready where the forecast indicates the weather will be the worst, and that includes putting extra crews on duty the last few nights in Whatcom, Skagit and Island counties, as well as opening our Emergency Operations Center to coordinate all the work.

At all times, we have more than 50 4-person line crews ready to go on the big jobs, as well as nearly 80 one-person service crews for smaller jobs and assessing larger repair needs. We also have nearly 200 trained damage assessors who can get out and eyeball the downed trees and other hazards and help make sure the right resources get to the right place.

And speaking of trees, we tree-trim year round, clearing branches and trees on 2,000 miles of powerline corridors in 2009 alone, and keep more than two-dozen of the tree crews available at all times to team up with our line crews to clear trees from downed wires, etc.

If you're interested in this kind of work, please take a look at our website. It's not easy, but our field crews have a great spirit and genuinely seem to love the job. You can hear it from them directly here.

Good thing, too, because it looks like they will be busy for a while.

Wild Horse powers up

2009-11-11T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's been a big week out at the Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, with the PSE site near Ellensburg now up and running at its new 149-turbine size.

Originally built in 2006 with 127 turbines (a.k.a. "wind mills"), Wild Horse grew by 22 turbines this summer with PSE adding the new machines to make a little more power from the wind that blows across the Kittitas Valley.

The new machines are Vestas V-80 2.0 MW turbines (MW for megawatt, or 1,000 kilowatts), which are a bit more powerful than the original V-80 1.8 MW units at the site. This photo shows one of the nacelles (which weigh about 80 tons and are about the size of a bus) that contain the generator unit and also the weather data gathering gear for each turbine. The nacelle sits on top of a 221 foot tall tower, with the 120 foot long rotor blades taking the whole height up to 351 feet from tip of the blade to the ground.

What I find most amazing is that our first wind facility (Hopkins Ridge) opened in November 2005, with Wild Horse in December 2006. So, in only four years, we have gone from no wind power to a capacity of 430 MW -- or what the American Wind Energy Association says is roughly equal to the energy needs of about 110,000 average U.S. homes. AWEA, by the way, ranks PSE as the second-largest utility owner and operator of wind power in the nation.

Wild Horse also has a large solar site, with some 3,000 solar panels, with new Washington-made solar panels being added this November as well. With a total capacity of 500 kW (or about 25 percent of the capacity of a single wind turbine) the solar site is not a major power producer, but does help meet much of Wild Horse's own energy needs, as well as giving PSE first-hand knowledge about operating a solar plant.

If you're thinking of adding a little solar to your own home, you're not alone: some 500 PSE customers now have home or business solar systems connected to the grid.

Those crazy kids in Auburn!

2009-11-09T12:38:00.000-08:00

Mostly a video blog here, but a fun morning in Auburn today with students from Auburn High School, Auburn Riverside High School and Auburn Mountainview High School to help dramatize the need for flooding preparedness.

The whole contest was designed to help spread the word about Take Winter By Storm, the joint emergency preparedness campaign sponsored by Puget Sound Energy, the City of Seattle and King County -- along with State Farm Insurance, who also had a team of sandbaggers today.

The event, which featured judges from the Army Corps of Engineers, showed how team effort is what it takes to be ready for winter weather -- and in this case a particular emphasis was paid to the preparations being made in Auburn and other areas near the Green River.

This morning, the students competed to see which school could fill and stack the most sandbags (properly, that is) in a ten minute period.

Auburn Mountainview (in orange) was the winner. But, as they say, the real winners are everyone who gets ready for storm season.

November blows in . . .

2009-11-06T10:18:00.000-08:00

You can set your watch by it. November arrives and here it comes, wet, windy and nasty weather -- sometimes all at once. Sadly, the storm from last night even proved deadly as one local man was struck by a falling tree. When the mountain snow hits, it just adds a little more to the travel troubles of the storm season in the Puget Sound area and Washington state in general.

The Take Winter By Storm campaign is one way PSE and other local partners including King County, the City of Seattle and State Farm Insurance are working to help get everybody ready for rough weather, with the TWBS effort including radio and TV commercials, as well as a handy preparedness checklist on the TWBS website.

The photo here is from an event we held for Take Winter By Storm this week, and it features PSE's Dennis Smedsrud doing a demonstration of how falling trees can impact the power grid as KIRO-TV videographer Richard Marshall takes pictures. Lots of "buzz" and "zap" for the cameras, and some helpful advice from the experts. If you see a downed line, stay away! And call either PSE at 1-888-225-5773 or 9-1-1 and wait until help arrives.

Generators were also part of the demonstration, and PSE wants you to use those safely too.

The Seattle Times' Richard Seven covered the exhibition, and has some great tips in his article from Nov. 3.

Our weather these past few weeks shows how quickly things can change around here at this time of year, with some dazzling sunny days followed by heavy rain and high winds, and even a little thunder and lightning. Surprisingly, we tend to get thunder fairly frequently at this time of year, especially in periods of rapidly changing weather, and little lightning is in the forecast through the weekend.

While everyone should take time to get set for nature's next bit of drama (whatever that may be) mountain drivers in particular should be thinking ahead. The National Weather Service has winter warnings up for the Cascades today, and any time now we will get our first avalanche closures and big snows on roads such as I-90 Snoqualmie, US 12 White Pass and US 2 Stevens Pass.

Are you ready, Olympia?

2009-10-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

Ah, what a summer it was . . . the cheering crowds, the long days and crazy nights, loading the truck up and hitting the road, not knowing what town we were in, just living to hit the stage one more time. And as you can see from the picture, I have extensive "ink" on my arms (and, no these are no fake tattoos that I slip on and off for media photo opportunities).

Is that my rock band fantasy? Yes, but actually it was PSE's Energy Rock Star reality this past four months as the Rock The Bulb tour rolled across Western Washington, spreading the joy of saving energy and money to 16 communities from Anacortes to Auburn and back again.

This weekend the tour is in Thurston County for one last stop. If you're a PSE residential electric customer just come on down to the Olympia Lowes hardware store this Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and bring in 10 old-fashioned energy-hungry incandescent light bulbs and we'll swap them, free of charge, for 10 energy efficiency compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs). These CFLs use about one-quarter of the energy of an equivalent incandescent light -- with each bulb saving you about $40 over the lifetime of the bulb in energy costs.

With Rock the Bulb, PSE has now distributed nearly 11 million of these wonders since 2002 through giveaways like RTB or through our rebate program with local stores. If you haven't tried one, or haven't tried one for a while, give them a go. The price is right at Rock the Bulb (free), and the lights come in different color shadings (warmer and yellower, whiter and brighter) than they did a few years ago. And, the recycling infrastructure is now in place so they can be disposed of properly and easily.

Thanks to all the PSE customers who have made this our summer of rockin' out and saving energy.

Rock'on dude.

Take Winter By Storm - pt. 2

2009-10-23T10:07:00.000-07:00

I had a chance yesterday to write about the Take Winter By Storm campaign that PSE is doing as a partner with King County, the City of Seattle and State Farm Insurance.

Here's one of the TV commercials we shot. This one is about the need to clear your neighborhood storm drain to keep your block from turning into a flood zone when fall rains come.

Enjoy!

Take Winter By Storm!

2009-10-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

It's time to Take Winter By Storm!

Nobody ever regretted being prepared for an emergency. On the other hand, the woulda, coulda, shoulda's are likely a familiar feeling for most of us when a storm hits or disaster strikes and we're left wondering why we didn't get ready when we had a chance.

Take Winter By Storm is a joint effort of PSE, the City of Seattle, King County and State Farm Insurance to spread the word that stormy weather is coming our way -- and getting ready is a wise move to keep you and your family safe.

The campaign involves both TV and radio commercials, as well as a website and tweets by WinterByStorm on Twitter and a page on Facebook.

Truth be told, I had a great time making the TV commercials, and incredibly enough we managed to shoot all the spots (flooding, Green River Valley flooding, clearing drains, generator safety, emergency kits and staying off the road in snowy weather) in one busy day.

Getting ready is fairly easy, but it is something to do now, and not in the middle of the next snowstorm, windstorm, earthquake, plague of locusts or whatever comes to your neighborhood. Emergency kits can be purchased (often with in a handy backpack) or put together yourself. The Take Winter By Storm website has a checklist that makes for an easy guide for what to have and how much of various supplies you'll need. The site also has ideas on planning, such as having a family contact and rendezvous point. Let's all get ready, and then breathe a little easier this winter knowing we're prepared.

Fall is here! Are you ready?

2009-10-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

The picture here makes me smile, because it was taken only a few weeks ago when the weather was warm and it seemed like summer would never end. The photo is from a TV shoot for "Take Winter By Storm," a joint effort with PSE, King County, the City of Seattle and State Farm insurance to help get people ready for storm season.

The day we took the photo (and shot the TV spots that will begin airing soon) it was about 70 degrees and I was wearing a sheepskin coat and gloves telling people about generator safety for stormy weather. And now stormy weather is here . . . at least will be by tomorrow.

The National Weather Service is predicting gusty weather for Tuesday (especially in the Cascade Foothills) and also some heavy rain later this week as well. Other forecasters such as the UW's Cliff Mass and KOMO's Steve Pool agree. Welcome to the Northwest!

If you haven't gotten ready for storm season, now is clearly the time.

El Nino: Not so easy after all?

2009-10-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

The latest word is in from the National Weather Service, and it's pretty encouraging when it comes to our fall and winter that are just around the corner.

Right now we are in a developing El Nino pattern, which generally means an easier fall and winter season for the Pacific Northwest. That "generally" however, comes with a big, big asterisk: while the overall winter may bring less rain, snow and storminess than usual, we can still see some slam-bang weather in an El Nino year.

The best example is the winter of 2006-2007, which began with some epic events: the rainiest November ever recorded (with about 16" of rain at SeaTac), some huge snow the night of the Seahawks-Packers football game, and the damaging Hannukah Eve Wind Storm shown in the picture here of downed trees and powerlines on Mercer Island. Once we got into January, the winter did become pretty ho-hum, and even very nice weather near 60 degrees was common in February and March, but after such a wild start to the season it would have been a stretch to call it an "easy winter!"

The NWS sees signs of El Nino now, which typically does mean easier weather for much of our season ahead. El Nino, which is when the Pacific Ocean is warmer than average, usually means more of the wind and rain that hits our region heads south to California, giving us a break. But as 2006 demonstrated, that effect doesn't really take hold until late December or after, making the first few weeks of the season about as lively as any non-El Nino year.

One key concern this year, of course, is the Howard Hanson Dam, and the potential for flooding in the Green River Valley -- including the towns of Auburn, Kent, Renton and Tukwila. This new tool from the NWS makes it easy to see what's happening on rivers near you.

Here's hoping El Nino does provide the break it is known for -- but the wise will recall that every year can bring some tough weather, El Nino or not, and will be ready when it comes.

If you're on Twitter, look for us at PSETalk.

What a week in energy

2009-10-02T16:34:00.000-07:00

What a week in the world of energy . . . let's go to the highlights!

On Monday, a great project in Skagit County roared to life, with Farm Power firing up its 750 kW generator -- capable of meeting the energy needs of about 500 homes. The plant is a manure-to-methane facility that takes cow-poo and turns it into renewable energy. The output goes right to our Green Power Program, meaning that when you participate you help make projects like this possible.

The photo here shows one of the Farm Power founders, Kevin Maas, on the left along with Gov. Gregoire, State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and PSE's CEO Steve Reynolds pushing a button on a laptop computer to fire up the huge 16-cylinder powerplant that runs the generator. Kevin's younger brother and fellow Farm Power co-founder Daryl is in the shot as well, but you can only see his ear. As a fellow "little brother" myself, I sympathize with you Daryl! That kind of thing happens to us younger brothers all the time.

Another highlight came on Tuesday, when I learned a local group of electric vehicle (EV) enthusiasts are planning a trip to our Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in October. The second photo here shows one EV driver's high-voltage hot rod with a PSE Green Power sticker in the window. The group is planning to drive over to Wild Horse and then recharge their cars while taking a tour of the wind farm. I'll get some more photos up later in the month when that happens.

And finally on Friday, PSE announced its role in what will be a major roll-out of electric cars in 2010, called cleverly, The Electric Vehicle Project -- which features the new Nissan LEAF (which is the blue car here). A $100 million grant from the Department of Energy to eTec, one of the project partners, will help go to charging stations around Western Washington, with PSE gearing up to supply power to the stations planned for Bellevue and King County.

And I almost forgot that October is Energy Awareness Month, but you knew that, right?

Gone gadget crazy

2009-09-24T15:56:00.000-07:00

Here's an amazing statistic from an article in the New York Times this week: the average home had 3 electronic devices in 1980 but that number has jumped to some 25 electronic devices in the average home now, with household consumer electronics now consuming 15 percent of the world's electrical output.

This statistic surprised me, but then I went around my own house and pretty quickly realized the stats were likely on the money for most of us. The picture here tells the tale: where we used to have one TV in the house most of us have many, and with each TV probably comes a DVD player, Tivo or DVR and maybe a cable box as well.

Home offices are the same. Perhaps years ago you might have had an electric typewriter and that's about it in a home office. Now it's a computer (and maybe a few more around the house), a scanner, a modem, a printer or two and maybe a outboard hard-drive or other gizmo for backup.

The Times writer, Kate Galbreath, has more details on her blog about new trends toward more efficient appliances, but the overall picure of rising energy use squares with what PSE sees as being about 40 percent more energy use in our region by 2029.

It's also why we offer rebates on appliances, lighting and other energy saving ideas.

Holy cow! Skagit dairy digester coming soon

2009-09-18T07:52:00.001-07:00

Kevin and Daryl Maas are two amazing guys, and they are about to see nearly three years of hard work come to fruition. Kevin (33 and seen at right with your humble blogger) is a former school teacher and his younger brother Daryl (31) is a retired Air Force captain. Both shared a vision of helping family farms in Skagit County, and of getting into the renewable energy business. Turns out, doing one meant doing the other as they started a company called Farm Power.

On Monday, Sept. 28, I will join the Maas brothers at the ribbon-cutting for their aenerobic dairy digester as this amazing renewable energy facility goes into service helping to power PSE's Green Power Program. The facility takes good ol' cow manure and turns it into methane which then runs a huge V-16 piston engine generator capable of making 750 kilowatts, or about what's needed for approximately 500 homes.

The cool thing here is that the technology takes waste and turns it into something useful. The process creates energy, but also reduces the amount of harmful nitrogen in the remaining manure, is less odiferous than traditional manure settling ponds and even leaves a nice, clean straw bedding for old bossy to bed down on.

The digester is versatile, too, with one photo here showing Kevin describing the facility to me as a truck containing 5,000 gallons of chicken waste (yech) adds its goop to the manure stew fermenting inside the digester (which is a covered, concrete box about the size of a tennis court).

One cool example of elegant engineering - the manure is heated to about 110 degrees to start the fermentation process by using the waste heat from the generator's radiator, making the whole thing incredibly self-sufficient.

Excited about this kind of technology? Then sign up for PSE's Green Power Program, which has contracted to be the exclusive power purchaser. By being a Green Power customer, you help give guys like Kevin and Daryl a market for their product, and as Kevin explained to me, the project may be about renewable energy and helping local farmers, but somewhere along the line a banker has to step in and finance the whole shebang.

Your participation in the Green Power Program provides proof of a market for the energy, which makes banker's smile. Grants from the State of Washington and support from Skagit County community leaders such as Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen helped a lot as well.

Tornado alley? Not quite, but yes they do happen

2009-09-08T09:39:00.000-07:00

Western Washington is hardly tornado alley, but over the Labor Day weekend we did see a confirmed tornado that did some damage in east King County, and even reports of a waterspout or two.

Surprised? Most of us probably were, but the fact is our state sees two to three tornadoes each year, mostly little guys but even at that the winds are typically around 100 mph when a tornado does touch down. In our record year of 1997, more than a dozen tornadoes were confirmed in Washington. Along with the record rain from the weekend, the mini-twisters did some damage, tearing up a farm and generally causing a bit of a hub-bub.

Why did they happen? The big tornadoes of the midwest are very different animal than what we see here, and pop in what is typically much warmer weather under conditions that build much more powerful storms -- often including damaging hail. Here our tornadoes are usually found in conditions just as we had this weekend, popping up in the wake of an out-of-season late spring or early fall storm such as passed through on Friday night and Saturday. As the storm moves by, it leaves a lot of turbulent, cold air -- which mixes itself out and settles down eventually, but usually only after a little thunder and lightning, and in the case of this weekend, a small tornado. Fortunately, our weather conditions usually keep the lid on the pot, preventing really large tornadoes or hailstorms from forming here.

A little terminology -- a funnel cloud is the actual visible cloud, with a tornado taking place when that funnel cloud makes contact with the ground. Theoretically, it is even possible to have a tornado (which is simply the intense vortex of swirling winds) without the funnel cloud at all.

The moral of the story from the electric utility perspective is the same as for each of us as homeowners or residents -- be prepared for stormy weather, it can come at any time, in almost any form.

Wind power picks up

2009-09-03T16:42:00.000-07:00

About this time last year, the recession made big news, first on Wall Street, and then on Main Street. Turns out that economists think the recession really started in December 2007, but the big earthquake in the stock market that hit last fall was when most of us felt the financial ground move under our feet.

The earthquake was felt in many sectors of the economy, with areas like automobiles, technology and housing being some of the bigger attention grabbers. However, one area that you might not have guessed was also hit pretty hard: the wind power business. Across the country, many big wind projects slowed or got cancelled completely as the economy tanked.

Now, though, it looks like many wind power projects are, ahem, getting their second wind, with some good news beginning to hit the front pages of the business section. It's early days yet to be talking about a recovery, but money is beginning to flow back into the wind power business, as well as solar and other renewable sectors.

Interestingly, 2008 and 2009 were full-speed ahead years for PSE in wind power and renewables, with the economy not having a significant effect on our plans to build more wind facilities. We have two right now, with a combined capacity of 386 MW, about what the American Wind Energy Association says is equal to the energy needs of 100,000 average U.S. homes. One facility, our Wild Horse site near Ellensburg, is adding 44 MW of capacity right now (the photo shows a new turbine blade being trucked in).

Our newest project in development, the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project, will be much larger, with a capacity of about 350,000 homes, according to AWEA's guidelines.

Why did we keep going when other projects slowed?

First, our ownership structure gave us a more secure financial footing to proceed than some other project developers.

Second, Washington state has a renewable energy standard requiring utilities to have 15 percent of the power used by their customers come from wind, solar or other renewable sources by the year 2020. (Existing hydro doesn't count, as the law is intended to spur new energy sources).

Third, our customers are asking for it. PSE operates in a pretty green area, and our customers want to see more renewable energy.

When it comes to natural gas, it's 2005 again

2009-08-31T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here's some news that will warm your heart (and take some heat off your wallet) this fall as the heating season draws near -- PSE filed today with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission to reduce natural gas rates by 17 percent for all classes of business and residential customers.

Homeowners will see a 16 percent drop -- a rollback that puts natural gas prices back to 2005 levels.

Why is this happening? The simple answer is that when it comes to the actual natural gas that comes to your furnace, water heater or stove, we can only charge you what we pay for it -- and the price we pay in the wholesale world for natural gas has dropped sharply. In fact, this drop in natural gas prices (which will take effect October 1 if approved by the UTC), follows a drop in June. We are allowed to make a profit on the cost of the infrastructure needed to deliver the gas (pipes, pumping stations, storage facilites, etc.) but not on the actual gas. That's at "market price."

Last year, natural gas markets rose dramatically, along with the market price for petroleum products, and as a result we had a wallet-walloping combo of record cold winter weather and very high natural gas prices. This year, in large park to the slumping world economy, natural gas prices fell back to levels about where they were in 2005.

Here's where a little good-planning on PSE's part came in: we have a gigantic underground natural gas storage facility called Jackson Prairie in Lewis County (pictured above). This site, a huge natural cavern, empties out over the winter heating season -- allowing us to buy cheaper summertime natural gas, and then pump that gas to you during our colder winter months rather than buying natural gas "as needed" during the winter when prices are high. This video gives a nice look at how the whole natural gas system works.

So, enjoy what should be easier heating bills this winter (and, if El Nino develops as expected, an easier winter as well) thanks to the reduced cost of the natural gas in today's filing.

Conservation is still a good bet as well, with PSE offering rebates for new, efficient natural gas furnaces. Jumping on that sooner rather than later would be smart as current federal tax credits for energy efficiency expire in the next few weeks.

Wild Horse expansion, part III

2009-08-28T14:44:00.000-07:00

It's another photo album Friday, with some great shots of how the 22 new wind turbines are being installed at PSE's Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility.

This view shows what it's like from on top of the nacelle that houses the generator -- about 230 feet off the ground.

Upper right shows the three matching blades (they are balanced and put into a specific group of three blades for each turbine.)

Center and bottom right shows the hub and nacelle on the ground -- note the size of the workers compared to the wind turbine parts.

Latest solar headlines

2009-08-27T09:59:00.000-07:00

A big week for solar energy being in the news, both locally and worldwide.

One notable event is the first solar panel production in Washington taking place in Arlington as Silicon Energy's panels begin coming off the line.

With made-in-Washington panels (disclosure: those in the know now call them "solar modules", but I haven't quite caught up to the new lingo) now available the incentive for utility customers having solar goes way up. PSE and other utilities administer a state program where homeowners with solar panels receive a "production payment" based on how much energy their solar system produces.

The basic rate is .15 cents per kilowatt, but can rise to as much as .54 cents with a "made-in-Washington" system. Clearly, having made-in-Washington panels is a big deal from a financial standpoint if you are contemplating solar energy.

PSE also offers "net metering," where customers receive a credit for any extra energy they generate, such as on a sunny day when your solar panels are producing plenty of electricity but you're not home. The two-way "net meter" we install (seen here at right) allows this energy to go back into the grid for use by other customers. Then, at times when you need more energy than you're system is producing, you can draw on those credits and get back the energy you've banked.

In essence, PSE acts like a big, maintenance free battery that stores extra power for when you need it.

In news further from home, some experts also believe solar panel prices are dropping due to the economy, and also on news that more big players from around the world are ramping up production. As with most things, though, the race to lead the way in solar is not without controversy over fair competition.

On PSE's end, we've seen solar growing rapidly, with more than 450 PSE customers now having solar systems connected to the grid, compared to 300 in 2008 and 200 in 2007. Many local installers are now seeing their business grow as a result.

Dialing back starts adding up

2009-08-24T12:14:00.000-07:00

Two things I once swore I would never do: ask for directions or read an owner's manual.

I still stand by my first declaration and will admit I never stop and ask for directions. Give me a map, a compass, a GPS and I'm happy. Asking a passerby and trusting their local knowledge? Not for me.

But I have become a convert to reading owner's manuals, and it was my digital thermostat that did the trick. And, according to the New York Times, it appears our federal government could stand to read the owners manual on a few of its thermostats as well. The NYT found that the Department of Energy could save a lot of money (your money, in fact) by installing and setting programmable thermostats in some of its buildings.

I endorse this advice, because I have seen for myself how effective the new digital thermostats can be -- when properly used. This is where a case of owner's manual aversion cost me money, and wasted a lot of energy.

The digital thermostats are great, and can be set to raise and lower the heat several times during the course of the day, warming the house up in the morning, then scaling back while you're out during the day -- and really cutting the temperature at night when everybody's tucked in 'til morning. A rule of thumb is that every one degree of lowering the temperature in winter is worth about two percent in heating costs.

My own non-scientific survey found this saves me about 10 percent on my natural gas use, which is pretty good considering absolutely zero effort or discomfort are involved -- with one exception.

I had to break down and actually read the manual and go through 10 or so gruelling minutes of programming the thermostat. After a brief few hours of recovery (a nap), I was able to return to my daily routine and start enjoying greater efficiency as well as spending less money on keeping my house warm. This all came after about two years of having the programmable thermostat ticking away like clockwork -- without being programmed. So, instead of magically dialling the temperature up and down, my un-programmed thermostat ran one, constant, money-gulping temperature day or night. As the philosopher Homer (Simpson) would say, "Doh!"

If you have an older thermostat, consider upgrading to a new digital model. If you have a digital thermostat, give that owner's manual a look and get it programmed. A range of no more than eight to 10 degrees from the lowest setting (night-time temperature) and the warmest temperature (early morning wakeup or dinner time) is best, with anything greater often losing some efficiency and making it tough on the furnace.

Now, about asking for directions . . . no way!

Wind pictures that will blow you away!

2009-08-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

A few more from the photo album out at PSE's Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility.

These were just taken as the 22 new wind turbines are going up, with the last of the bunch now being completed.

Next up: completing the connection to the facility's collection system and testing the units.

It's expected they will be in service and producing power by this fall.

Together, the 22 new turbines will have the capacity to produce 44 megawatts of electricity, or what the American Wind Energy Association says is equal to the needs of some 10-13,000 average U.S. homes.

The top photo shows the 80-ton "nacelle" which contains the generator and weather data equipment being lifted to the top of the 20-story tower on which it will be mounted.

The lower photo shows the matched set of three 120-foot-long turbine blades waiting to be raised into position.

Stop on by our visitors center about 15 miles east of Ellensburg for a closer look. And bring your camera!

Wind turbine techno-talk

2009-08-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

Considering the Puget Sound region is home to all manner of techno-businesses, from aerospace to computers to health science, it's no surprise that the subject of "How things work" is a pretty popular one.

Right now, PSE is expanding its Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility, and that work has provided a great chance for some photos of what the turbines look like when they're disassembled and a few of the technical tidbits you can't see when everything is up and running.

The first shot is of one of the turbine blades being hosted into position so that it can be bolted into the bullet-shaped hub. This is a major undertaking, akin to threading a needle -- except that the thread is a 120-foot-long turbine blade and the eye of the needle is the opening in the turbine hub mounted about 220 feet in the air.

The next photo is a great "end-on" view of one of the blades. If you look carefully you can see the bolt holes that mate it to the hub, and also, on the left, the curved shape of the blade -- which resembles a giant whale fluke (to me, at least, you get your own Rohrshach moment on what you think it resembles). Advanced, composite fiber and resin materials are one key technology in making these blades possible. Before things like carbon-fibre, the blades were aluminum, which made them too heavy to be as large as they are today. And, in the wind power business, the longer the turbine blade the more efficient and powerful the wind generator. Some turbine blades are now even longer than the ones being installed at Wild Horse.

Interestingly, you can't just grab any three blades and put them together, either. Each turbine has a three bladed "propellor", and those blades must be carefully matched and balanced. If your an old-fashioned automotive gearhead you'll see the parallel to a hot rod motor being "balanced and blueprinted" for extra precise matching of parts. Here you can see a set of three balanced turbine blades awaiting their turn to be hoisted skyward.

At the bottom is the big kahuna in terms of what is lifted -- the 80 ton generator nacelle, which arrives pre-assembled at the site, ready for the hub to be attached and the unit lifted to the top of the steel tube tower. The nacelle contains the generator (capable of producing 2 megawatts -- or about the energy needed to meet the needs of roughly 500 average U.S. households).

This shot really shows the scale, with the workers all looking pretty small by contrast with the machine itself. One other note, if you look toward the back and top of the nacelle you can see the twin loops of the wind speed and direction gear, which gives each turbine its own weather data for its specific location. All 127 turbines at Wild Horse (soon to be 149 when the expansion is completed later this year) can turn independently to catch the wind best, maximizing their power generating ability.

If want to see more, please stop by the free visitors center. It's just off I-90 near Ellensburg, and is open everyday through November (except Thanksgiving Day).

Melting glaciers?

2009-08-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Phrases such as "like a glacier" or moving at a "glacial pace" typically conjure up images of things that go very slowly. Perhaps, though, these cliches may need to be revised thanks to a new report on some surprisingly rapid changes to glaciers across the western U.S., and in particular those in the Southern Cascades.

A new study found that some glaciers in our region may have lost as much as 50 percent of their volume since 1958, with even some Alaska glaciers shrinking as much as 15 percent. The study, conducted by U.S. Geologic Survey scientists in Tacoma, was conducted using five decades of measurements. Not surprisingly, global warming gets the nod as the likely culprit behind the rather dramatic change.

As a utility, news like this gets our attention on a couple of fronts, in part because the mountain snowpack is the fuel for our hydro system, and the receding glaciers are a possible sign that more of the precipitation in the mountains is falling as rain, and not snow. Rain may be helpful for greening up our area during the spring and summer, but it doesn't do much for us in the winter, as rain runs downhill and downriver and out to sea -- whereas mountain snow sticks around and slowly melts, giving our dams a power source right through the dry season.

One other key point for a utility is the spector that a changing climate may lead to changing demand for electricity, perhaps causing greater summer time energy use in a region that has traditionally seen its winter peaks be much larger than its warm weather peaks, a situation that could conceivably be reversed over time.

And, it means that we'll continue to look at new forms of renewable energy (such as the solar array seen above with Mt. Rainier in the background) and greater energy efficiency to get the most of out any future power resource.

PSE wind power: big and getting bigger

2009-08-07T08:24:00.001-07:00

Some big news about a big wind project, as PSE is now the sole owner of the Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project (winner of the "longest name possible for a wind farm" contest).

The project, being planned for Southeast Washington's Garfield and Columbia counties, is now in the permitting stage, with nearly 800 turbines and the capacity to power 400,000 or more average U.S. homes on the drawing board.

The whole effort was launched late in 2008 as a joint project of PSE and Renewable Energy Systems Americas, and now PSE has bought out RES' interest and is the sole owner. RES, however, is still on board as the general contractor, and in fact is also the general contractor for the expansion now underway at our Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in Central Washington.

Why wind, and why in Southeast Washington? For starters, Washington state has a 15 percent renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that goes into effect in stages starting in 2012, culminating in the full 15 percent requirement by 2020. This 15 percent standard requires utilities to have that much of their resources be from renewable energy, and largely keeps existing hydropower out of the mix in an effort to have new sources be developed. (PSE currently gets about 40 percent of its power from hydro). Wind power is proving to be a cost-effective way to meet this standard (which was passed by voters in November 2006 as I-937).

In addition to the RPS, we simply need more and diverse sources of energy. Our customer base is growing (with nearly 100,000 new business and residential customers since 2004) and each individual is also using more energy as well. So, new sources of energy are needed, aside from the climate change and environmental issues that drive the move toward wind, solar, etc.

Southeast Washington is proving to be a great place for wind, with our Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility (pictured above) going strong in the historic town of Dayton, Wash. in Columbia County since 2005. The Palouse has plenty of wind, and the wind facilities are a great fit with the wheat and grain farming that has been in the region since the late 1800s. Wheat farmers get a nice second stream of income from having turbines on their land, and can keep farming at the same time. The economic boost is felt by those without turbines as well, with wind facilities in Columbia County now representing about 35 percent of the county's tax revenues, and a source of approximately 50 new jobs in an area that has seen shrinking employment since the 1970s.

Lower Snake River Wind Energy Project -- a long name, but a long list of reasons why it works for our customers and the community.

Record heat, record energy use

2009-07-31T15:57:00.000-07:00

This week's record heat has also meant record energy use, with A/C around the area cranked (and apparently becoming more popular as well).

PSE customers set a new record for summertime energy use, with maximum demand reaching 3508 MW on Wednesday afternoon as temperatures at SeaTac hit their all-time record of 103 degrees. This exceede the old summertime record of 3228 MW set on a 98 degree day in the summer of 2007.

In contrast, our all-time record is 4906 MW set last December during our big winter cold and snow -- which shows that we still have more furnaces around here than air conditioners, but not by much.

From our previous 2007 summer record until our new record set this week, the temperature rose by about 5 percent (98 degrees vs. 103 degrees) but energy use rose by more than 8 percent (3228 MW to 3508 MW).

To me, that means that while we still do have more furnaces than air conditioners, the A/C is catching up quickly.

New record ... or not?

2009-07-29T12:05:00.000-07:00

Record hot temperatures are always a tough call, and today's up and down at SeaTac shows why.

The temperature has been as high as 95 degrees this morning, and then dipping back to 90 degrees and now up to 93 degrees again here at the noon hour -- with the slightest variations in the wind making all the difference.

An east wind, gaining a little heat as it comes down off the Cascades, sent us up to a toasty 95 degrees for a short time, then a west wind, off the cool waters of Puget Sound, sent temperatures down to a frosty 90 degrees. All of which means that whether we break the all-time record of 100 at SeaTac (set on June 20, 1994) a tough call. I'd say yes, but the slightest shift in the wind will make the difference. And, if it's going to be this hot, let's get into the record books. KOMO's Scott Sistek and Paul Deanno have a nice rundown of all this.

On the utility front, it's a demanding day on our electrical system, but we do have the capacity to meet energy needs. The larger issue is the stress on the infrastructure, and so far we have seen a few small outages in Bellevue, Olympia and Redmond. Some were from what appeared to be small animals causing a short-circuit, others from equipment failures. Was it the heat? That's hard to say. It's easy to know if the weather caused an outage when a tree is blown over in a storm, but tougher when equipment fails in hot weather. No doubt, extreme heat puts stress on any kind of mechanical device, from your car radiator to our infrastructure. So far, though, the response from PSE crews has been quick and most customers who have been out are back in service within a few hours.

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How can you help ease the load? Energy efficiency is always a winner, and a way to save money while helping the environment. Here are some tips at PSE.com, although I am not sure there's any great way to stay cool with temperatures pushing 100 degress today.