Greetings LLP Members & Customers
Over 93% of the power LLP purchases from BPA comes from clean, renewable hydroelectricity. However, as more legislation and focus are devoted to clean energy, our state has developed aggressive goals to help support the transition. One of Governor Inslee’s goals is to grow the ownership of electric vehicles (EVs) to 50,000 by the year 2020. Coincidentally, Auto Alliance’s 2019 Advanced Technology Vehicle Sales Dashboard reveals a comparable trend in WA state with EV ownership. EVs registered in WA state have tripled from 10,000 to 30,000, since January of 2018. To support clean energy via the electrification of transportation, LLP has installed a ChargePoint Level 2 EV charging station in our parking lot. It has the capacity of charging either one or two vehicles at a rate of 25 to 35 miles per hour of charging, and payment is made via a user-friendly mobile app. Considering Lakewood’s population and the continual decrease in EV prices, I wouldn’t be surprised to see nearly 400 EVs on our local roads by next year. You may even own or know of someone who owns an EV. Furthermore, the location of our charging station is convenient for travelers along Interstate 5 and Bridgeport Way SW.
As promised, I wanted to follow up with the second part of the demand explanation from the previous newsletter. Part 1 covered what the demand component is. Part 2 covers how the demand data can be used to support the resiliency of our service to you, as well as help us to manage purchased power costs. As a refresher, a simple description of demand is the “high water” measurement of one’s peak electrical use, within a given billing cycle. Our ability to capture and analyze aggregate demand data, either at the feeder, substation, or entire grid level, has the potential to help us manage costs for both residential and commercial customers. One possibility is using the data to develop future residential rates that would incorporate a time-of-use pricing structure. A solution like this would furnish customers with the ability to manage their power costs, by incentivizing them to use power during off-peak times, thus taking advantage of lower usage rates. Similarly, we gain autonomy to manage our purchased power costs with BPA by shaping our load around non-peak periods. On the other hand, commercial customer demand data facilitates the optimization of the company’s many transformer assets. Through reporting we can audit a given transformer’s use and determine whether the transformer is being over- or under-utilized, both of which cause premature wear and a shorter life.
These are just 2 examples of how LLP continues “looking to the future…to provide reliable, cost-based power”.
Sincerely,
John DeVore
General Manager