You've got the power

Groups to pay $10M a year to find ways to cut power use, go renewable

South Carolina residents can cut their electricity use by about a third and state utilities can get at least 3 percent of their power from renewable sources, according to two studies released Monday by the state's 20 electric cooperatives.

The cooperatives, nonprofit groups that serve 1.6 million South Carolina residents, touted these numbers while announcing a commitment to spend $10 million a year — roughly 1 percent of their revenue — on renewable energy and programs to help their members cut electricity use.

"This is pretty major," said Ron Calcaterra, chief executive officer of the Central Electric Power Cooperative. "And quite frankly, it's more than anyone else in the state is doing right now."

The money will bankroll a subsidy program to install 7 million ultra-efficient compact fluorescent lights in South Carolina homes over the next 10 years.

"The choice for us is very simple: Either we send the money to coal miners in West Virginia or we give it to our customers to use less energy," Calcaterra said.

The cooperatives also will fund research at the University of South Carolina to design more efficient coal-burning power plants.

The cooperatives don't generate any of the power their members use, but they commissioned a study on renewable energy six months ago to hold their suppliers — namely state-owned utility Santee Cooper — to "the highest standard." The report showed that the state could generate enough energy from "green" sources to power up to 300,000 homes.

There are few viable places in the state to capture solar or wind power, as local utilities have long contended, but there are a number of lesser-known fuel options, according to the report released Monday. Wood waste from the state's massive timber industry, for instance, could be the state's biggest source of green power.

Utilities also could siphon electricity from undammed rivers; the gases of 10 untapped landfills; and agricultural waste, including that of corn crops and poultry farms.

The cooperatives also announced Monday they would buy electricity back from their members under a new "net metering" program.

Marshalling these resources, South Carolina utilities could up its green energy capacity by 665 megawatts in the next decade, an amount equal to the output of a medium-size coal-burning power plant, according to the report.

At the same time, South Carolina residents could cut their power use by as much as 37 percent by 2017, according to a second report, though one-fourth would be a more plausible reduction.

The cooperatives named a host of changes to produce those results, include well-funded incentive programs, ultra-efficient light bulbs, solar water heating systems and beefed up insulation.

Environmental groups lauded the cooperative's studies and their $10 million annual commitment to efficiency and renewable energy.

"The studies show what I was hoping that they would: that efficiencies and renewables can have a measurable effect in this state," said Ben Moore, a project manager at the Coastal Conservation League. "Those are not insignificant numbers in there."

Moore's group and other environmental watchdogs have been locked in a battle with Santee Cooper over a coal plant the utility has proposed for Florence County.

Blan Holman, senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, said Santee Cooper should at least have commissioned studies like those released by the cooperatives Monday, before making a decision to build the plant.

"What's embarrassing here is the timing," Holman said.

Santee Cooper has said it examined all options, including conservation, before deciding on a coal-fired plant.