What's in my Powerbill?

Renewable energy shows up in a few places in my ConEd bill – In my choice of an energy supplier and in the System Benefit Charge. The default energy supplier in my area is Sustainable Westchester, which sources 100% renewable electricity. The System Benefit Charge was created by the New York Public Service Commission as part of the ‘Vision Ruling’ of 1996 that ‘de-regulated’ the New York electricity market. As stated, the point of the SBC was to fund public policy initiatives not expected to be adequately addressed by New York’s competitive electricity markets.

The System Benefit Charge doesn’t amount to a lot on my bill, and increased after I purchased an EV in Nov 22, as can be seen below

However, while the System Benefit Charge isn’t huge, the impact is fairly significant when put to work by NYSERDA – New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. As the NYSERDA website says, NYSERDA works to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy, and emissions reduction across New York’s economy and energy system. 

You can see exactly what the System Benefit Charge funds by looking at the System Benefit Charge NYSERDA Report. If you don’t want to read the report, here are some excerpts of funding projects of NYSERDA and its affiliates.

• NY Sun 6GW goal – NYSERDA set a goal of 6 GigaWatts of installed, distributed solar panels in homes and businesses across NY. We are on track to reach this goal.
• Smart Grid – The Smart Grid Program promotes product development and demonstrations targeted at ensuring high levels of security, quality, reliability, and availability of electric power; improving economic productivity; and minimizing environmental impacts while maximizing safety and sustainability.
• The electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure efforts include engineering studies, product development, demonstration projects, and pilot programs to validate technology that minimizes negative grid impacts from grid-powered vehicle (GPV) charging, develops GPV-to-grid communication technologies and control processes, and promotes new business models that enable the benefits of vehicle storage for the distribution system.
• The Clean Power Technology Innovation Program works to advance smart grid technology, assist New York State innovators in product development, and overcome barriers and institutional impediments to the widespread use of renewable and clean power and storage technologies.

These are just a few of the projects that are funded in part by the System Benefit Charge tacked on to our electric delivery bills.

Back to renewable energy suppliers. By far, the largest renewable energy provider in New York is the New York Power Authority, which controls all of the hydroelectric power generation in New York. I discuss NYPA in other blog posts, but if we look at a snapshot of renewable energy in the NYISO electric grid at this moment, hydroelectric is by far the dominant energy source: Real-Time Dashboard – NYISO

Hydro, Nuclear and Wind energy make up the vast majority of renewable energy that hits the grid. Solar energy goes from the panels on your roof to your home. The ‘Other Renewables’ section includes solar that is sold back to the grid.

Electricity can’t be directly routed from Niagara Falls to my home in White Plains. Therefore, when I choose a renewable energy supplier, I’m really telling a supplier to purchase Renewal Energy Credits from a renewable energy provider. The NY ISO grid snapshot above shows that the energy credit purchases do lead to actual electricity in the grid, but just not directly to my home.

When you consider that the delivery of electricity can be the same cost or up to 2x higher than energy supply, it’s clear that the best way to save money in electricity is to generate your own power and deliver it directly to your home.

In any case, I hope this meandering posts gives you some idea of how renewable energy shows up in your power bill.