Puget Sound Energy - Facilities

Facilities

PSE’s electric supplies include utility-owned resources as well as those under long-term contract, for a total capacity of 5,044 megawatts (MW).

PSE owns coal, hydroelectric, natural gas and wind power-generating facilities, with more than 2,900 MW of capacity. Roughly one-third each of PSE generation comes from coal, hydroelectric, and natural gas facilities, with a small remainder coming from wind and energy efficiency programs.

Coal accounts for 36% of PSE’s electricity fuel mix. PSE's partial ownership of Eastern Montana's Colstrip Generating Station represents the single largest power-generating facility PSE owns, approximately 700 MW of generating capacity. In 2010, the Colstrip Generating station was the 8th largest greenhouse gas emitter among power plants in the United States.

Hydroelectricity generates 33% of PSE’s power supply. The company operates these hydroelectric facilities:

• The Baker River Hydroelectric Project on the Baker River, a tributary of the Skagit River in Skagit County. There are two dams on the river, Upper Baker Dam and Lower Baker Dam, generating 170 MW of electricity.
• Two power plants at Snoqualmie Falls Hydroelectric Project, on the Snoqualmie River in King County. The generating capacity of these two power plants, currently 44 MW, will increase to 54 MW following the completion of the Snoqualmie Falls redevelopment project currently underway.
• The Electron Hydroelectric Project on the Puyallup River in Pierce County generates 22 MW of electricity.

Natural gas-fired power generation accounts for 29% of the utility’s electricity fuel mix. The company operates these natural gas-fired facilities:

• The Sumas Generating Station in Whatcom County is a cogeneration natural gas–fired plant capable of generating 125 MW of electricity.
• The Encogen Generating Station in Whatcom County is a combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 167 MW of electricity.
• The Goldendale Generating Station in Klickitat County is a combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 277 MW of electricity.
• The Mint Farm Generating Station in Cowlitz County is a combined-cycle natural-gas-fired plant capable of generating 310 MW of electricity.
• The Fredonia Generating Station in Skagit County is a simple-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 314 MW of electricity.
• The Frederickson Generating Station in Pierce County is a simple-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 147 MW of electricity; the nearby Frederickson 1 Generating Station is a combined-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 137 MW of electricity.
• The Whitehorn Generating Station in Whatcom County is a simple-cycle natural gas-fired plant capable of generating 147 MW of electricity.

Wind power and other generation sources, such as biomass and landfill gas, account for 1% of the utility’s electricity fuel mix. PSE is the second-largest utility owner of wind energy facilities in the United States. The company owns and operates these wind-power facilities:

• The Hopkins Ridge Wind Facility in southeast Washington’s Columbia County began commercial production in 2005. Hopkins Ridge’s 87 wind turbines have the capacity to generate 157 MW of electricity.
• The Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility in central Washington’s Kittitas County began production in 2006 and was expanded to include 22 turbines in 2009. Wild Horse’s 149 wind turbines have the capacity to generate 273 MW of electricity.
• In 2012, the first phase of the Lower Snake River Wind Project begins in Southeast Washington's Garfield County. Lower Snaker River Phase 1's 149 turbines have the capacity to generate 343 MW of electricity.

Wild Horse also includes the region’s largest utility-owned solar array, a 500-kilowatt demonstration project (0.01% of total PSE generating capacity), and the Renewable Energy Center, which is open to visitors from April through November.

Due to fluctuating wind speeds, actual wind generation averages about one third of these stated "nameplate" capacities. Much of this wind generation capacity is currently under contract to Californian utilities. Washington State's I-937 law phases in the requirement that large utilities obtain at least some of their electricity from new renewable resources such as solar and wind (but excluding hydro) with incremental steps of 3% by 2012 and 9% by 2016 and 15% by 2020. As these requirements kick in PSE will retain more of this "green electricity" within their system. However, while I-937 requires a utility to generate at least three percent of its load from renewables by January 1, 2012, and to publicly report these renewables, Puget Sound Energy's I-937 Report shows 0% of Puget Sound Energy's power as coming from renewables.

Within the PSE region more than 1,000 residential and business customers have installed small-scale, customer-owned renewable energy projects including solar and wind projects. Customers with solar projects are generating at least part of their electric needs through their solar array. A net-metering program allows these customers to return extra solar power to the grid, draw power when the customer needs more than is generated, with the metering program calculating the difference.

Washington State law RCW 19.29A.090 requires electric utilities to offer their customers renewable "green" power options. Customers can voluntarily support biomass generation with the utility’s Green Power Program, supporting “dairy digester” power-generating projects in Whatcom and Skagit counties, as well those involving the use of wood and paper manufacturing by-products and methane extracted from area landfills. This voluntary customer choice to purchase "green electricity" costs the customer about an additional 10% on their utility bill.

An additional approximately 1% per year of generation comes from—or actually is reduced by—state mandated I-937 energy efficiency programs, adding an average 25 additional "Negawatts" generation capacity per year. Since 1978 the program has recorded 363 cumulative average negawatts on incentives paid of $650 million—representing an attractive (virtual) resource acquisition at less that $2 a watt. These energy savings programs work by PSE offering (typically partial) financial incentives for customers to voluntarily choose to install more energy efficient products. These incentive costs in turn are charged back to all customers, whether or not they choose to use these incentives. PSE is required, and limited-to, incentive programs that in the end cost all customers less money than if PSE were to install the otherwise required additional generating facilities. Examples of these energy efficiency programs include discounts on CFL and LED light bulbs, additional home insulation and duct sealing, free home energy use evaluations, converting from baseboard electric heating to natural gas or ductless heat pumps, more efficient windows, and flow-reducing shower heads.

For its natural gas service to customers, PSE purchases a portfolio of natural gas supplies originating in western Canada and the U.S. Rocky Mountains states. Most of this natural gas reaches PSE’s customers through a network of underground interstate pipelines and local natural gas mains. On cold winter days, PSE withdraws natural gas supplies from the Jackson Prairie Natural Gas Storage Facility, which is located near Chehalis, Wash. Jackson Prairie, the Pacific Northwest’s largest underground natural gas storage facility, is operated and co-owned by PSE.