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Planning for California's Clean Energy Future
Following California's Energy Action Plan, PG&E has designed a broad energy strategy to meet its customers' future power needs in as environmentally responsible a manner as possible. The strategy relies first on an aggressive expansion of customer energy-efficiency and demand-side management programs; then it looks to secure additional renewable power resources; and, finally, it seeks to fill the remainder of customers' energy needs through traditional, but ever more efficient, generation sources.
Planning for California's Clean Energy Future
To meet the needs of our customers, we generated more than 34,000 GWh of electricity from PG&E-owned natural-gas, hydroelectric and nuclear facilities in 2006. To supplement our owned generation, PG&E procured power from a variety of sources to satisfy a total customer demand of nearly 76,700 GWh.
As the chart indicates, more than half of the electricity we delivered to customers comes from sources that emit no or low amounts of greenhouse gases; a significant amount comes from large hydroelectric power stations (which, under California law, do not qualify as an eligible renewable resource). When these facilities are factored into the power used to serve our customers, PG&E's sales of California-eligible renewable resources—plus large, noneligible hydroelectric—were approximately 34 percent in 2006.
Delivering Some of the Nation’s Cleanest Power
PG&E delivers some of the cleanest electric power of any major electric company in the United States. In 2005, the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions rate of our owned electric generation was 44 pounds per megawatt-hour (lbs/MWh), while the independently certified CO2 emissions rate associated with the power we sold to customers was 489 lbs/MWh. By comparison, the national average CO2 emissions rate for all power generation was approximately 1,363 lbs/MWh, while the California average CO2 emissions rate was approximately 879 lbs/MWh.
** 2005 emissions rate for our delivered electricity was independently certified and registered with the California Climate Action Registry.
For our owned generation, PG&E's nitrogen oxide (NOX) emissions rate was 0.06 lbs/MWh in 2006, compared to an estimated national average of 1.99 lbs/MWh; our 2006 sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions rate was 0.00388 lbs/MWh, compared to an estimated national average of 5.22 lbs/MWh. We had no reportable mercury emissions.
We also continue to work to minimize the emissions associated with the transmission and distribution of electricity. Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, approximately 22,200 times as potent as CO2. It is used as an insulating material in high-voltage circuit breakers.
In 2006, PG&E significantly reduced our SF6 emissions through a variety of innovative techniques and process improvements, including piloting the use of X-ray technology to more efficiently inspect the internal components of circuit breakers; implementing a program to reduce the low SF6 alarm threshold on our circuit breakers, which allows us to identify leaking units much sooner; verifying SF6 levels in our circuit breakers on a monthly basis to more quickly flag potential leaks; and evaluating a new 72 kV circuit breaker that contains no SF6 gas, which could potentially replace more than 360 breakers currently in service, each containing 20 pounds on average of SF6.
Since 1998, we have reduced our SF6 leak rate by 84 percent and our absolute emissions by 76 percent. To achieve these reductions, we worked in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and others through the U.S. EPA's SF6 Emission Reduction Partnership, of which we were a Charter Member.
| Project | Location | Technology | MW | GWh/Year (low) | GWh/Year (high) |
| HFI Silvan | La Pine, OR | Biomass | 20 to 40 | 71 | 142 |
| Liberty Biofuels McCarthy Family Farms | Lost Hills, CA | Biofuels | 5 to 10 | 35 | 70 |
| Bottle Rock USRG | Ukiah, CA | Geothermal | 17 to 55 | 119 | 385 |
| IAE Truckhaven | Salton Sea, CA | Geothermal | 49 | 366 | 366 |
| Global Common— Chowchilla | Chowchilla, CA | Biomass | 9 | 72 | 72 |
| Global Common— El Nido | El Nido, CA | Biomass | 9 | 72 | 72 |
| Northwest Geothermal— Newberry | Newberry, OR | Geothermal | 60 to 120 | 420 | 840 |
| Calpine Geysers1 | Sonoma and Lake Counties, CA | Geothermal | 200 | 922 | 922 |
| Tunnel Hydro | El Dorado County, CA | Hydro | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.1 |
| Buckeye Hydro | El Dorado County, CA | Hydro | 0.4 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
| Eden Vale Dairy | Kings County, CA | Biogas | 0.15 | 1.3 | 1.3 |
| Bio Energy LLC | Fresno, CA | Biogas | 2 to 44 | 15 | 350 |
| Microgy | San Joaquin Valley, CA | Biogas | 4 to 44 | 35 | 350 |
| Palco | Scotia, CA | Biomass | 7 | 36 | 36 |
| Total | 383 to 588 | 2,168 | 3,610 |
Securing Renewable Power Resources
In 2006, PG&E made significant progress toward meeting our renewable energy goal of supplying 20 percent of our customer needs with qualifying renewable resources, consistent with California's renewable portfolio standard (RPS). In 2006, more than 9,100 GWh of the power we delivered to customers came from California-eligible renewable resources (including eligible hydroelectricity that we own); this represented approximately 12 percent of our total retail sales.
PG&E is actively adding renewable electric power resources to our supply of delivered power. We secured more than a dozen contracts in 2006 with the potential to provide more than 500 megawatts of renewable resources. We are finalizing negotiations from our 2006 Request for Offers (RFO) and launched the 2007 RFO (our fifth solicitation) in March 2007.
renewable energy technologies, and are dedicated to accelerating their
In 2006, PG&E began delivering clean, renewable wind energy from a PPM Energy site in Solano County, Calif. Photo courtesy of PPM Energy
Wave power also holds great potential, as PG&E's service area borders approximately 600 miles of Pacific coastline. We are evaluating many different promising technologies that could cost-effectively convert the energy of the oceans into electricity over the next decade. The next generation of renewable energy offers many possibilities.
Seeking to build on these efforts, PG&E proposed a $30 million Emerging Renewable Resources Program to the CPUC in our 2006 Long-Term Procurement Plan. If approved, this program would enable PG&E to ramp up efforts to identify and support new technologies and resources, and assist promising technologies in overcoming developmental barriers with the goal of expanding renewable supplies and reducing costs over the long term.
Investing in Cleaner Conventional Sources
PG&E is also investing in state-of-the-art, cleaner sources of fossil fuel-based power to meet growing demand. In 2006, we unveiled a comprehensive investment strategy in electric infrastructure to ensure years of clean, reliable future electricity supplies for our customers. PG&E reached a key milestone by executing agreements to purchase 2,096 megawatts of new, highly efficient natural gas-fueled generation for operation in 2009 and 2010, including planned ownership of a 660-megawatt plant in Colusa.
In addition, PG&E will build, own and operate the new 530-megawatt natural gas-fueled Gateway Generating Station—the first new power plant we have constructed in nearly 20 years. The facility offers a number of environmental advantages, including a "dry-cooling" technology to avoid use of river water for cooling purposes. Also, the combined cycle technology will decrease fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to conventional fossil-fuel power plants. Compared to older plants, the new plant will yield 35 percent less CO2 for every megawatt-hour of power produced.
PG&E also plans to repower its existing Humboldt Bay Power Plant with a new, environmentally superior generation facility. PG&E will own and operate the new 163-megawatt power plant upon completion of construction, which is expected in mid-2009. The modern technology selected will allow the new power plant to provide a flexible and reliable supply of electricity for local residents that will be 35 percent more efficient and produce 90 percent fewer ozone precursors than the existing plant, while eliminating the need for once-through ocean-cooling utilized by the existing plant.
Delivering Natural Gas
PG&E's 4.2 million natural gas customers consumed approximately 828,550 million cubic feet (MMcf) in 2006. Natural gas is a clean-burning fuel that is used in a wide variety of applications, including heating homes, cooking meals and driving manufacturing processes.
With more than 40,000 miles of natural gas distribution pipelines and 6,000 miles of transmission pipelines, PG&E operates one of the largest natural gas distribution networks in the country and takes seriously our responsibility to ensure its safety and integrity. As part of this commitment, PG&E is working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the delivery of natural gas.
Natural gas contains more than 95 percent methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that is 21 times more potent than CO2. As an active member of EPA's Natural Gas STAR Partnership, PG&E has continued to reduce the methane leak rate from our natural gas pipeline operations, preventing the release of more than 670 tons of methane or approximately 14,066 tons of CO2 —equivalent in 2006. This compares to an avoided release of more than 1,000 tons of methane in 2005—a reflection of PG&E's continued improvements and the fact that the largest opportunities for reductions have already been captured.
In addition to replacing pipelines, PG&E reduces methane emissions through cross compression, a process by which natural gas is transferred from one pipeline to another during large pipeline construction and repair projects. Cross compression reduces the amount of natural gas vented to the atmosphere by 85 to 90 percent. In 2006, PG&E used the cross compression technique five times throughout our system. And finally, PG&E is looking at alternative sources of "natural gas" for our customers by pursuing opportunities to utilize bio-gas in our system. PG&E's service area is one of the richest in the country in terms of the potential for bio-gas, and we have entered into an agreement with Microgy, Inc., to tap this vast resource.