Los Angeles approves more renewable power

The City of Los Angeles is increasing the amount of its green power supply.

LA City Council has approved two new power purchase agreements to provide enough renewable energy to power 70,000 homes.

These agreements, each of which provide 25 megawatts of renewable power, enable the city to meet an additional 2% of its goal to increase the city’s renewable power supply to 20% by 2010. The agreements are to go into effect April 1.

"The agency is utilizing power purchase agreements such as this as a bridge to increasing our supply of renewable energy in the short term, while pursuing plans to build renewable power generation for ownership over the long term," said H. David Nahai, president of the Board of Water and Power Commissioners.

During the first year, LADWP will purchase renewable energy from several small hydro-electric generating facilities in the Pacific Northwest. Over subsequent years LADWP may receive other types of renewable energy—including small hydro, biomass, landfill gas and wind—through the agreement from generating facilities located in the Pacific Northwest.

The agreements will bring LADWP’s renewable energy supply to 8% of its power generation portfolio.

Other recent renewable power acquisitions by Los Angeles include the purchase of 82 megawatts of wind power annually from PPM Energy. The city is also negotiating to buy most of the power from a 200-megawatt capacity wind generation facility being developed in Millard County, Utah, and has begun construction of the 120-megawatt Pine Tree Wind project in the Tehachapi Mountains, expected to come online in 2009.

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