Project Details:Top

Utility Name:	Chelan County Public Utility District
Utility Type:	Muni
Funding Source(s):	Voluntary Customer Premium Payments
State:	Washington | WA
Region:	West
Utility Program(s):	Distributed Solar Systems,Residential System Incentives (¢/kWh),Commercial System Incentives ($/kWh),Green Pricing Program
Technology:	PV

Project Description:Top

In 2001 Chelan PUD, located in Washington State, created the Sustainable Natural Alternative Power (SNAP) program to connect customers who want to produce solar power with other local customers who want to support the development of new, renewable energy. In short, it is a market-driven variation of a green pricing program.

Payments from the voluntary contributions by customers act as incentive payments to encourage the installation of individual customer-owned PV systems. The electricity generated is fed into Chelan PUDs electrical grid and is distributed to all its customers.

Participating funding customers donate an additional $2.50 through their monthly electric bills for the SNAP program. These funds are aggregated and distributed once a year to solar electricity producers based on their production, i.e. all the money donated is dispersed to all the generators based on the amount of electricity they contributed to the total. As more generators sign up, the payment per kilowatt-hour, will decline. The amount paid by Chelan County PUD to individual SNAP producers depends on the total contributed by SNAP purchasers and the total generated by all SNAP producers. Costs to become a producer include the cost of the renewable energy system, a one-time $100 meter connection fee and a $3.65 basic meter fee each month.

The maximum payment is $1.50 per kilowatt hour. The payment in 2006 was 25 cents per kilowatt hour. Systems must be 25kW or less and wind energy equipment in included in the program. As of May 2007, 42 PV systems have been installed at a total capacity of 78kW.

In addition to the SNAP program funds, solar and wind power producers in Chelan County qualify for the state`s renewable energy production incentive program. The state`s incentive program allows the PUD to pay each solar and wind power producer in the county up to $2,000 per year. The amount of the production incentive depends on the amount of solar and wind energy produced and whether the equipment that produced the energy was manufactured within Washington State. Solar producers using solar modules and inverters manufactured in Washington State can receive up to $0.54 per kWh. If just the inverter is made in Washington, the solar producer would receive $0.18/kWh. Energy generated with modules and inverters manufactured outside Washington would receive $0.15 per kWh.

Project Links:Top

General Project Description: http://http://www.chelanpud.org/snap.html

Customer Tools:

• SNAP Producer Brochure - http://www.chelanpud.org/documents/snap.pdf
• SNAP Producer Checklist - http://www.chelanpud.org/2231.html
• SNAPMay 2007 Presentation - http://www.bpa.gov/Energy/N/Utilities_Sharing_EE/Workshop2007/pdf/MarkWiser_SNAP.pdf

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