DWP Board Poised to Expedite Efforts to Reach Green-Power Goal

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power can generate 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2010, or seven years earlier than planned, but it will likely result in heftier bills, the agency said Tuesday.

DWP board members said any increase is likely to be about $1 per month for the average homeowner, a rise that member H. David Nahai characterized as “affordable.”

As a result, the panel reached a consensus during a workshop Tuesday to move the deadline up to 2010. A vote to adopt that deadline as policy will be held at the board’s meeting next Tuesday.

Former Mayor James K. Hahn proposed that the city increase green power in its energy portfolio from 3% to 20% by 2017.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who took office in July, proposed that the city accelerate its efforts to reach 20% by 2010.

While some forms of green power cost more than coal and natural gas-fired power plants, board members Nahai and Nick Patsaouras said any green power surcharge may be offset by the sale of excess electricity generated by the agency.

Both said gas prices are likely to continue climbing.

“There are environmental reasons,” Nahai said. “But from a purely economical perspective, we are compelled to move up the timetable because the volatility of natural gas prices requires us to look at alternatives.”

Patsaouras said he believes the public would also support a reasonable rate increase based on the benefits of the city moving to cleaner power sources.

Environmentalists who attended the workshop urged the board to look beyond 20%.

“Twenty percent by 2010 is achievable, so let’s go beyond that,” Woodrow Clark said.

The 20% goal can be reached by increasing wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and hydro powers, according to Henry Martinez, assistant general manager of the DWP.

He proposed that providers of green power be asked to submit proposals to the DWP in 2007.

Meanwhile, the move toward the 20% goal was advanced Tuesday when the City Council approved spending $239 million to build 80 windmills 12 miles north of the town of Mojave that would provide clean energy to 100,000 L.A. homes and businesses.

The 120-megawatt project would represent about 1.5% of the DWP’s energy portfolio.

“We are going to be very aggressive about this,” Councilman Tony Cardenas said. “We are committed that two out of every 10 days that people use electricity, that’s going to be the cleanest energy available to mankind.”