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NW Energy Coalition Report, October 2002

Where Does Your Electricity Come From?

The drought of 2001 caused Washington to increase its consumption of coal-generated electricity by 61%, making coal responsible for a quarter of the total energy used in the state that year. Typically, only about 16% of Washington's electricity is produced by coal plants. The large jump occurred because hydro-dependent utilities had to purchase larger chunks of market power to serve their retail loads as river flows fell – revealing a major environmental consequence of continued dependence on hydropower.

The information comes from recently required fuel mix disclosure reports – which function much like labels on food packages – in which utilities show what percentage of their electricity supply comes from different fuel types. Washington passed the law establishing fuel mix disclosure in 2000. "When utilities share fuel mix information with their customers, they are committing to a long-term education of consumers regarding the sources of their electricity," said Liz Klumpp with the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development (CTED )'s Energy Policy Group .

Utilities and the Bonneville Power Administration report to CTED how much power they got from different generation facilities each spring. CTED sorts these claimed resources from its list of generating units in the Northwest Power Pool and accounts for imports and exports based on available data to calculate the "net system mix" for the Northwest.

Washington's individual utility fuel mix labels for 2002 can be viewed at http://www.energy.cted.wa.gov/FuelMixDisclosure.htm . A report on Oregon's fuel mix disclosure is coming soon.

Washington State Aggregated Electricity Fuel Mix

Actual electricity production data from 2000 and 2001, reported to consumers in 2001 and 2002

RESOURCE
TYPE

Percent of Total in 2000 (reported in 2001)

Percent of Total in 2001 (reported in 2002)

TOTAL:

— Danielle Dixon

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